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Beverly Hills Employer Retaliation Lawyer | Labor Code 1102.5

What can California employees do when their employer is breaking the law? What if someone at work asks either you or coworkers to break the law? Many employees want to do the right thing by reporting actual or threatened unlawful activity – either to management or the government – but they are afraid of being retaliated against if they do. Fortunately, California law protects workers from retaliation either for refusing to break the law or for reporting actual or threatened violations of laws.

If you believe that your employer is taking retaliatory action against you, please contact Los Angeles Employer Retaliation Attorney Jeffrey Cowan at (310) 394-1420. We will schedule an appointment for your comprehensive, in-office consultation with one of the area’s leading Employee Rights and Wrongful Termination Lawyers.

Employee Anti-Retaliation Protections in the Los Angeles Area

Although anti-retaliation provisions exist in other laws (for example, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act forbids retaliation for opposing or reporting unlawful discrimination; and Labor Code § 6310 protects those who report violence or other workplace safety issues), California Labor Code Section 1102.5 protects employees and their families from retaliation for the employee doing any of the following things:

1. Disclosing information about what you reasonably believe to be a violation of the law to a government or law enforcement agency, a person with authority over you, or any other employee who has the authority to investigate, discover, or correct the violation;

2. Refusing to participate in an activity that would violate a law or regulation; and

3. Participating in an investigation about your employer violating the law.

The retaliation that Labor Code Section 1102.5 prohibits includes many forms, including:

Harassment;

Cutting hours;

Reducing pay;

Unwarranted demotion;

Cutting or terminating employee benefits;

Suspension;

Firing (either outright firing or forcing an employee to quit); or

Threatening any one of the above

Some examples of people whom the law protects are:

A bank teller who refuses her manager’s pressure to fraudulently open a line of credit in a customer’s name to meet an internal sales quota;

A worker who reports violations of the National Electric Code at a construction site to his manager;

A truck driver who reports violations of federal safety rules in how trucks are being maintained; or

Workplace safety violations.

Failure to bring your whistleblower action within the statutorily required (three year) time frame will result in the loss of your right to sue for the harm that you have suffered.

Contact The Cowan Law Firm Today for a Workplace Retaliation Consultation

If you think you may have been retaliated against for reporting or refusing to participate in illegal conduct, contact Los Angeles and Beverly Hills employment lawyer Jeffrey W. Cowan and The Cowan Law Firm at (310) 394-1420 or info@cowan-law.com. These claims are often very complicated and difficult to investigate, and they may have statutes of limitation as short as a year, so it is important to act as quickly as possible.

Los Angeles’ best lawyers have honored Jeffrey W. Cowan by giving him Martindale-Hubbell’s “AV” rated “Preeminent” attorney rating since 2002, and supporting his selections as a Southern California Super Lawyer since 2007. Jeffrey Cowan is one of Southern California’s most highly respected employment lawyers, and he has substantial experience prosecuting and investigating workplace whistleblower lawsuits.