Retaliation Lawyer

Retaliation lawyers represent clients in Texas in employment retaliation lawsuits. Retaliation for reporting violations of employee rights and employment law is unlawful Your employer cannot fire you or take any other negative action against your job because you reported a violation of employee rights either internally within the company or externally to state or federal agencies. Your employer cannot act against you for participating in an investigation of claims of unlawful workplace conduct. If you have suffered retaliation against for reporting violations or participating in an investigation you have a right to have your job restored or compensation for lost wages and benefits as a result of retaliation.

You have a protected right to report violations

As an employee you have certain rights under the law to your job and your pay. The same laws that protect your rights also prohibit your employer from acting against you when you protect your rights. If the law did not protect your ability to enforce the law then those rights would be useless. State and federal law prohibits employer retaliation for reporting violations of the law to the appropriate state and federal agencies as well as internal reports to human resources or management. Retaliation is never acceptable. Your employer cannot retaliate against you for reporting alleged violations. Even if the violation you reported is determined not to have occurred. If your employer unlawfully retaliations you should contact Dallas and Fort Worth Texas employment lawyers right away.

In addition to reporting violations of your own employee rights, you are also protected from retaliation for reporting violations of other employee rights and participating in both internal and external investigations of violations. Without these protections employees would not speak up about problems in the workplace and would not help investigations uncover these violations. It would be very hard to uncover the truth when illegal workplace activity occurs if employees won’t speak up for fear of losing their own jobs.

Protected activities in Texas

Employees should be aware of what activities are protected from retaliation to better protect their own rights. Examples of protected activities include:

Prohibited retaliation under Texas and federal law

Your employer is prohibited from taking any retaliatory steps. Prohibited retaliation includes any negative action against you and your job if the negative action is related to your reporting or participation in investigating claims of violations. The retaliation may be as severe as termination but can include less severe acts. Some common forms of retaliation include:

These are not the only ways retaliation can occur. Any negative action the employer can think up can be prohibited retaliation if it responds to your reporting unlawful conduct.

Not all complaints create retaliation claims

Not all complaints of undesirable workplace conditions or conduct by management is protected from retaliation. Retaliation is unlawful when in response to a reporting or investigation related to a legally protected right of the employee or legally prohibited conduct of the employer. If the employment law does not prohibit management’s conduct then there is no remedy for retaliation for complaining to higher levels of management or human resources for the undesirable conduct.

For example, if your boss is a jerk and you complain to HR about it and your boss fires you for complaining, you likely would not have a claim for retaliation because the law does not prohibit your boss from being a jerk. However, if you complain that your boss is sexually harassing you and your boss fires you, then you likely would have a claim for retaliation because the law does prohibit your employer from sexually harassing you.