New Law Provides Injunctive Relief to Workers Facing Whistleblower Retaliation

October 25, 2017 by Christopher Hammer

California law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who report labor law violations, but the remedies available to victims of retaliation can sometimes be inadequate. Governor Brown has now signed into law SB 306 which will help address this problem.

This new law strengthens the protections for employees who have been terminated for reporting dangerous working conditions or other labor code violations such as meal and rest breaks or minimum wage and overtime. SB 306 allows whistleblowers to seek an immediate and temporary injunction restoring their employment if they were terminated for reporting violations of state law. Either the Labor Commissioner or the employee can seek the injunction. Although California law has long protected workers against unlawful retaliation, the remedies are often difficult to pursue when the employee is out of work. This change to the law will allow the employee the opportunity to continue working while the claim of retaliation is litigated and should make it harder for unscrupulous employers to violate labor laws.

 

For more info:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB306

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