{"id":2127,"date":"2011-09-12T08:14:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T08:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.california-labor-laws-attorneys.com\/blog\/?p=77"},"modified":"2011-09-12T08:14:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T08:14:14","slug":"retaliation-whistleblower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.california-labor-law-attorney.com\/retaliation-whistleblower\/","title":{"rendered":"California Labor Law Attorneys have more Ammunition to Combat Retaliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Group<\/p>\n

Labor attorneys fought long and hard over whether or not Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protects oral, as well as written, complaints in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. On March 22, 2011, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision; the Court held, in a 6-2 decision, that the anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)<\/a> protect oral, as well as written, complaints.<\/p>\n

Labor attorneys had already won a suit against Saint-Gobain for placing time clocks in a location that did not allow workers the ability clock in prior to getting in and out of their gear, thus forcing them to work off the clock. Kasten filed an anti-retaliation suit against Saint-Gobain, alleging that Saint-Gobain terminated him for orally complaining about the location of the time clocks.<\/p>\n

FLSA is probably better known for enforcing wage and hour issues such as overtime, working off the clock and reimbursable expenses, but it also forbids employers from terminating “any employee because such employee has filed any complaint alleging a violation of the statute.\u201d The text of the FLSA was insufficient for the Court to interpret whether the term “filed” included oral complaints. Thus, the Court considered other factors, including:<\/p>\n