Retaliation

The lawyers at Correia & Puth, PLLC have the experience and drive to protect employees from unlawful retaliation in the workplace. We identify employees’ legal rights, craft strategies to stop workplace retaliation before it occurs, and enforce legal rights after employers retaliate. We also counsel employees who believe they have are experiencing retaliation, and to recover for employees who have been retaliated against or terminated for engaging in protected activity. We also negotiate with employers, and file claims and lawsuits on behalf of our clients when appropriate. We zealously represent employees to obtain the best possible results.

You Have Rights to Protect You From Workplace Retaliation

Workplace protections from retaliation can be very broad. Not only do laws against retaliation protect employees from termination, but usually also provide protection from an employer taking an adverse action that would “dissuade a reasonable employee” from complaining about their legal rights. As a result, adverse actions can include termination, refusal to hire, denial of promotion, unjustified negative performance evaluations, or other threats or harassment.

Under civil rights laws, an employee engages in protected activity by opposing unlawful discrimination or harassment, or participating in an employment discrimination proceeding. An employee opposes discrimination when they complain about unlawful discrimination or harassment, threaten to file a complaint, or refuse to obey an order they reasonably believe is discriminatory. An employee participates in a proceeding when they file a complaint of unlawful discrimination or harassment, cooperate with an internal or external investigation of discrimination or harassment, or serve as a witness in an investigation or litigation. Each of these can amount to “protected activity” for the purposes of retaliation under county, state, and federal anti-discrimination laws, such as the District of Columbia Human Rights Act, Montgomery and Prince Georges County Human Rights Acts, Maryland State law, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (“Section 1981”), and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

In the disability setting, employees can engage in “protected activity” by seeking accommodations for disabilities. Similarly, employees can gain protection from retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by seeking or taking protected FMLA leave.

The number of laws protecting against retaliation for protected “whistleblowing” is very extensive. Those laws include the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, the False Claims Act, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and a host of other laws. State laws in the District of Columbia and Maryland also protect against retaliation in a variety of settings. Employees are protected from retaliation for collectively complaining about the terms of conditions of employment under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Importantly, public employees may not be retaliated against for exercising their rights to free speech under the United States Constitution. Employees are also protected from retaliation related to asserting their rights for health insurance or benefits provided under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009.