If your employer asks you to file fraudulent reports or engage in any other type of illegal behavior, you are most likely protected from retaliation. If you are disciplined or fired for either refusing to do as you are asked or reporting the illegal activity, you may have legal remedies.
Illegal Employer Activities
Unfortunately, there's no limit to the types of illegal actions an employer might ask employees to commit. Some illegal employer actions involve violations of workplace protection laws, such as:
- asking employees to work "off the clock" or to not record (or pay for) hours worked by their reports
- forbidding employees from taking breaks to which they are legally entitled
- instructing employees to lie to internal or outside investigators about workplace harassment or discrimination
- requiring employees to work in unsafe conditions, forbidding employees to use legally required protective gear, and other safety violations, or
- firing employees who support a union.
Sometimes, employers ask employees to violate laws intended to protect the public or the government. For example, an employer might require employees to:
- submit false tax returns on behalf of the business
- falsify audits or other financial reports
- disobey consumer protection laws, such as those that govern product safety or product testing standards, or
- lie to government auditors.
Legal Remedies If You Are Fired or Disciplined
If you face retaliation because you reported illegal activity by your employer, you may be protected by laws that prohibit retaliation and protect whistleblowers. There are many such laws. Most laws that protect employees, such as laws prohibiting discrimination and regulating workplace safety, including a protection from retaliation. If you are fired or disciplined for reporting violations of these laws, you can sue.
A number of federal and state laws protect employees who report particular types of employer misconduct. If you are retaliated against for reporting employer fraud against federal contracts or federal agencies, for example, you may be protected by the False Claims Act. If you face workplace reprisals for complaining of accounting fraud or illegal conduct by financial firms and ratings agencies, you may be protected by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or the Dodd-Frank Act. Many states also have laws protecting those who blow the whistle on specified employer crimes.
Some states allow employees to sue their employers for wrongful termination in violation of public policy. This type of lawsuit claims that you were fired because you refused to engage in illegal activities or because you reported such activities. Not every state allows this type of claim; state that do have adopted different rules about what the employee has to prove, what types of illegal activities are covered, and what remedies are available to an employee who wins this type of lawsuit. An employment lawyer can tell you whether your state recognizes this cause of action and, if so, what you'll have to prove in order to win.
Get Legal Help
Before you decide what to do, it's a good idea to get some legal advice. An employer can help you sort through your legal options and decide how to proceed. If you have legal remedies against your employer, a lawyer can also help you assert your rights. Because some of these laws have short statutes of limitation, you'll need to take action quickly if you want to protect yourself and your job.
