News & Analysis as of

Protected Activity Hiring & Firing Termination

Miller Canfield

Michigan Supreme Court Expands Liability Under Anti-Discrimination Statute; Endorses Third-Party Retaliation Theory

Miller Canfield on

“Third party” or “associational” retaliation is reprisal taken by an employer against someone other than the person who engaged in “protected conduct.” In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Title VII’s anti-retaliation...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Rejects Retaliation Claim Based on ‘Personal Gossip'

In Johnson v. Global Language Center, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of an employer in a Title VII retaliation claim, where the “protected activity”...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Seventh Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Ruling Against Illinois Employee Who Refused to Participate in Sale of Product Banned in...

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A recent Seventh Circuit decision interpreting Illinois law affirmed the district court’s ruling that an employee’s refusal to engage in activity illegal in New York, but not in Illinois, was neither protected under the...more

Sherman & Howard L.L.C.

Know-Nothing Defense a Winner in Retaliation Cases

A recent case out of the Sixth Circuit, Mangold v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. reminds employers of the importance of keeping an employee’s participation in protected activity on a need-to-know basis as a preventative...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

Alabama Federal Court Denies Motion for Summary Judgement on SOX Whistleblower Claim

On April 2, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama denied a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, finding genuine issues of material fact...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

Mississippi Federal Court Denies Summary Judgment on SOX Whistleblower Claim

On February 12, 2018, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi recently denied a motion for summary judgment in a SOX whistleblower claim where the defendant company alleged that it terminated...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

For Any Lawful Reason: Firing an at-will employee under dubious circumstances need not lead to liability if the reason for the...

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

A recent decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals highlights the distinction between firing an employee for personal or politically expedient reasons (which may be entirely legal) and firing an employee because of his...more

Baker Donelson

NLRB: Warning Coworker that Job is at Risk Inherently Protected Activity

Baker Donelson on

Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) ruled that an employee who was fired after warning a co-worker his job was at risk had engaged in inherently protected activity and must be reinstated. The case,...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Opposing Employer Actions Directed at General Public Not Protected Activity

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Seyfarth Synopsis: An employee who expresses opposition to an employer’s policies and practices that affect members of the general public is not engaging in an activity that FEHA protects, because the activity is not opposing...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

E.D. Pennsylvania Limits Protected Activity Under SOX

In Westawski v. Merck & Co., No. 14-cv-3239 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 18, 2016), the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted Defendant Merck & Co. (Company) summary judgment on Plaintiff Joni Westawski’s (Plaintiff) SOX whistleblower...more

FordHarrison

Does New Jersey's Conscientious "Everyone" Protection Act Trump the NLRB's Exclusive Jurisdiction? State Supreme Court says "Yes"...

FordHarrison on

Executive Summary: Just when employers thought New Jersey's Supreme Court could not expand the state's whistleblower law further (as we reported last summer), the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) once again has...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Quirky Question #284: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, can you still unlawfully retaliate against it?

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

Question: One of our male supervisors wants to fire a female employee who complained that he was sexually harassing her. The harassment allegations appear to have some substance: he asked her for pictures of herself in a...more

Proskauer - Whistleblowing & Retaliation

ARB Rejects SOX Claim of Employee Who Threatened Co-Worker

On February 18, 2016, the ARB dismissed a former employee’s whistleblower retaliation claim under Section 806 of SOX, concluding that he failed to show that his protected activity contributed to the decision to terminate his...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP - Social Media

A Negative Review May Be Protected Activity Under U.S. Employment Law

Yelp, Inc. is more accustomed to being on the giving—rather than the receiving—end of a negative review. That changed recently when a Yelp customer service employee, Talia Ben-Ora, posted an open letter to Yelp’s CEO on her...more

Proskauer - Whistleblowing & Retaliation

N.D. Illinois Grants Summary Judgment Against SOX Whistleblower

On August 26, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted summary judgment on a whistleblower retaliation claim under Section 806 of SOX, holding that Plaintiff Ivor Hill failed to establish a...more

Fenwick & West LLP

Fenwick Employment Brief - April 2015

Fenwick & West LLP on

Ninth Circuit Reviews Enforceability of Waiver of Right to Reemployment - Does California Business and Professions Code § 16600 prohibit employees from waiving their right to reemployment with prior employers? The...more

Epstein Becker & Green

Act Now Advisory: Court's Ruling That Employees Have No Blanket Entitlement to Take Employer's Confidential Documents for...

In a case that may have a broad impact, the New Jersey Appellate Division issued a decision on December 24, 2013, upholding criminal charges against a former school board clerk who took hundreds of confidential documents for...more

Proskauer - Whistleblowing & Retaliation

S.D.N.Y. Dismisses SOX Whistleblower Case, Applying Strict Protected Activity Standard And Finding No Causation

On December 12, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted an employer summary judgment on a long-running SOX whistleblower claim. Sharkey v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., No. 10-cv-3824 (S.D.N.Y....more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

District of Colorado Expansively Construes Protected Activity Under Dodd-Frank, But Finds No Causation

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado followed a trend of decisions concluding that a plaintiff need not have provided the SEC with information regarding alleged federal securities law violations to pursue a...more

Littler

Retaliation and Whistleblower Claims by In-House Counsel

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In This Issue: - Whistleblower protections and in-House Counsel - Sarbanes-oxley - The Dodd-Frank Act - The False Claims Act - Common Law Wrongful Discharge Claims - The Ethical...more

Littler

No Longer Black and White, Is the "Definitively and Specifically" Standard Now Grey?

Littler on

While the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB) and the majority of federal courts once agreed that, in order to engage in "protected activity" under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), a whistleblower must...more

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