Many workers who face serious mistreatment at work are surprised to learn that the law may not protect them. Employment discrimination law in the United States and in Texas is built on a framework of employee thresholds, meaning that certain protections only apply once an employer reaches a minimum number of employees. If your employer
When Congress passed the Taxpayer First Act in 2019, most people focused on how it changed the IRS. But there is another part of the law that matters a lot for everyday workers. It creates real protection for employees who speak up about possible tax fraud or unpaid taxes. For the first time, federal law
Many employees don’t realize this until it’s too late: whistleblower retaliation claims often come with extremely short deadlines—sometimes as little as 30 days to act. If you believe you were punished, terminated, demoted, or threatened for speaking up about unlawful or unethical conduct at work, time is not on your side. Acting quickly can
When employees speak up about unsafe working conditions or violations of law, federal whistleblower statutes are designed to protect them from retaliation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) administers one of the broadest whistleblower protection programs in the country, enforcing anti‑retaliation provisions under more than twenty federal statutes. Understanding which law applies, how long
As Halloween approaches, most of us expect a few harmless scares — maybe a jumpy horror movie or a haunted house. But for employees, there are far scarier things lurking in the workplace than ghosts and goblins. We’re talking about employer mistakes that can lead to legal nightmares — wage theft, discrimination, retaliation, and more.
It was October 31st, and the office halls were darkened with cobwebs, glowing jack-o’-lanterns, and a fog machine that hissed ominously in the corner. Spirits were high. Costumes were bold. Laughter echoed. Pranks abound. But what no one realized was that hidden beneath the masks and makeup lurked something far more sinister than ghosts or
Within employment law, the terms “hostile workplace” “harassment” and “hostile environment” often evoke images of a bully boss or inappropriate jokes. These types of situations are not uncommon. A majority of people can look at a past or current job that has created an environment that is intolerable. With
As employment lawyers, we often meet with potential clients who don’t quite understand the difference between plain English retaliation and the kind of retaliation that rises to the level of actionable retaliation.
There’s a good reason why people don’t know the difference. The plain English definition of retaliation
One of the elements of every retaliation claim is that there must be a “causal link” between the employee’s protected activity and the adverse action. In previous blogs I have talked about the standard for determining whether a materially adverse action has occurred. In this blog, I would like
Human Resources has called you into a meeting. At first, you are nervous. You wonder if someone caught you taking Carl’s lunch from the fridge or if all of those pens you accidentally put in your pocket are going to come back to haunt you. But
