Retaliation: Build Your Case Against Workplace Retaliation!

Retaliation in the workplace occurs when your employer takes some adverse action against you or a member of your family that follows closely after you either have made a formal complaint to certain government agencies (such as the Labor Department, or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) or have participated in the investigation of a complaint.

Certain federal and state laws prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee because of that employee exercising his or her rights.

There are provisions against retaliation in:

• the federal labor laws


• federal and state wage and hour laws


• federal and state laws against discrimination


• federal and state occupational safety and health laws


• state worker compensation laws


• federal whistleblower laws


• federal corporate ethics laws

Retaliation claims generally have three parts to them, which you as the person bringing the claim must set forth and demonstrate by evidence. The three elements are typically: (1) a protected action, (2) an adverse action, and (3) a connection between (1) and (2) that demonstrates that (1) caused (2). For example, with the EEOC, there are three essential elements of a retaliation claim:

1. there was opposition to discrimination or participation in covered proceedings (such as an investigation);


2. there was adverse action taken against the complainant; and


3. there was a causal connection between the protected activity and the adverse action.

Frequently in instances of retaliation, there is a pattern of escalating behavior over time, which -– if it can be made clear –- helps to support your claim that your employer retaliated against you for something you did. So, as soon as you think that your employer may be retaliating against you, you need to start preparing a listing of events -- in chronological order -- detailing actions you took and actions of the employer’s managers and supervisors that you feel are adverse to you. The best way to do this listing is on a computer, because you can easily insert rows or lines for events that come to your mind later, as you reread the chronology.

Try to backtrack to earlier events and be as detailed as possible. Continue the chronology from the present time while you continue to reconstruct and recapture past events. Remember, it is close linkage in time between the protected activity and the adverse action that helps to demonstrate the causal connection supporting the retaliation claim.

Subsequent posts will address more detail about retaliation.

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Technorati tags: wrongful termination, wrongful dismissal, wrongful discharge, employment law, human resources, retaliation.