I am not a lawyer and in no way should this be taken as legal advice. It is for education purposes only.
I frequently see comments on this sub about how “If I make a complaint, my boss will just fire me for something else.”
This is called retaliation and firing is an adverse action – even if your boss makes up another excuse.
Americans have more protections than they believe – I’m not saying it’s enough, but you should know the rights you have.
Under the NLRA, you have the right to:
• Organize a union to negotiate with your employer concerning your wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.
• Form, join or assist a union.
• Bargain collectively through
representatives of emplovees' own choosing for a contract with your employer setting
your wages, benefits, hours,
a n d other working conditions.
• Discuss your terms and conditions of employment
or union organizing with your co-workers or a union.
• Take action with one or more co-workers to improve your
working conditions by, among other means, raising work- related complaints directly with your employer or with
a government agency, and seeking help from a union.
• Strike and picket, depending onthepurposeormeansof
the strike or the picketing.
• Choose not to do any of these activities, including joining or remaining a member of a union
The Department of Labor has resources to help you form a union or collectively bargain:
https://www.dol.gov/general/workcenter
You are protected against any retaliation:
Employees have the right to unionize, to join together to advance their interests as employees, and to refrain from such activity. It is unlawful for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights. For example, employers may not respond to a union organizing drive by threatening, interrogating, or spying on pro-union employees, or by promising benefits if they forget about the union.
Discharge, constructively discharge, suspend, lock out, lay off, fail to recall from layoff, demote, discipline, or take any other adverse action against employees because they support the union or engage in union activities.
This includes discussing wages with coworkers or unsafe working conditions.
What is an adverse action?
An adverse action is an action which would dissuade a reasonable employee from raising a concern about a possible violation or engaging in other related protected activity. Retaliation harms individual employees and can have a negative impact on overall employee morale. Because an adverse action can be subtle, such as excluding employees from important meetings, it may not always be easy to recognize.
Adverse actions may include actions such as:
* Firing or laying off
* Demoting
* Denying overtime or promotion
* Disciplining
* Denying benefits
* Failing to hire or rehire
* Intimidation or harassment
* Making threats
* Reassignment to a less desirable position or actions affecting prospects for promotion (such as excluding an employee from training meetings)
* Reducing or changing pay or hours
* More subtle actions, such as isolating, ostracizing, mocking, or falsely accusing the employee of poor performance
* Blacklisting (intentionally interfering with an employee’s ability to obtain future employment)
* Constructive discharge (quitting when an employer makes working conditions intolerable due to the employee's protected activity)
* Reporting or threatening to report an employee to the police or immigration authorities
https://www.whistleblowers.gov
What is an example of retaliation?
Example situation:A worker informed her employer that she called OSHA because she believed there was a fire hazard that her employer refused to fix. The worker had reported the fire hazard previously to her employer. A workplace practice existed which allowed all employees to swap shifts if they needed to take time off. The worker tried to swap shifts a few days after she told her employer that she called OSHA, but her employer did not allow her to swap. However, the other employees were still allowed to swap shifts.
Example analysis:Workers have a right to call OSHA to report an unsafe condition. Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act protects workers who file complaints with OSHA. By calling OSHA to complain about the fire hazard, the worker engaged in protected activity under one of the whistleblower laws administered by OSHA. She informed her employer that she called OSHA. Her employer denied her shift swap only a few days after being notified that she called OSHA. In addition, she was the only employee denied the ability to swap shifts. The denial of the shift swap is an adverse action. And, in this case, it appears that her employer denied her shift swap because she engaged in the protected activity. If the employer denied her request to swap because she called OSHA, then retaliation has occurred and the employer’s actions violated section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
https://www.whistleblowers.gov [further down the page]
How do I prove that the protected activity caused the adverse action?
For you to win, the evidence must show that your employer was motivated to impose that adverse action because of your protected activity. This is called “causation.” Causation can be proved either by direct evidence or by an inference.
Direct evidence is evidence that the employer was upset about the protected activity. If you or another witness saw a supervisor spout off about someone organizing, that is direct evidence of the employer’s “animus” against that protected activity. Similarly, if the employer announces that whoever calls the union will be fired, or warns employees against talking to union organizers, that is direct evidence of animus.
In other cases, unlawful retaliation can be inferred from:
* timing (how soon it occurred after the employer learned about the protected activity),
* animus (the boss getting angry about the protected activity),
* deviation from normal practices (people are not usually fired for this reason, or in this manner),
* changing explanations,
* a pattern of adverse actions against those who speak up, or
* the use of false evidence.
https://bwlawonline.com/blog/employee-rights/unions-retaliation/
However, there is one way retaliation is possible, and that’s if YOU allow it to happen.
American workers need to use the rights that we have – the right to organize, the right to discuss wages, and the right to safe working conditions. More Americans need to know about their rights instead of giving up those rights by not exercising them.