What Is Retaliation?

Is your employer targeting you because you stood up for yourself at work? That is known as retaliation. The retaliation lawsuits are some of the most successful workplace lawsuits in California. Retaliation occurs when your boss takes any adverse employment action against you because you threatened to report something or you did report something. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there are many different laws under which you can bring a retaliation lawsuit.

The first set of laws are wage and hour laws. So if you threaten to report your employer to the Department of Labor or threaten to file a lawsuit and your employer fires you for that, you would have a retaliation claim against him or her. The second set is the family leave laws. If your boss fires you because you tried to take leave using the Family Medical Leave Act, you would be able to sue for that. The third set is the discrimination laws. If you complain that you are being discriminated against and you believe discrimination was occurring when you had a demotion, suspension or was fired, then you would have a retaliation lawsuit for that.

The fourth set of laws are whistleblower laws. If your boss was actually breaking the law and you reported this to the employer and they fired you for that, you could bring a whistleblower lawsuit. It is hard proving retaliation because employers always wait to find some reason to justify taking some adverse employment action against you. So the first thing you should do is to record the complaint. If you are going to complain, do not be quiet about it. Record the conversation, send a written email or text message, or bring a witness who is not going to be scared to come forward if you lose your job.

This article does not provide legal counsel.