This is about the company my girlfriend works at. She is an office worker and is tasked with too many things, most notably she manages people's time cards. However the headquarters, which she submits the time cards to, tell her to “fix” cards for various reasons like if they are missing breaks/lunch on them because the employee couldn't take one because of the workload, started a little early or left a little late, and sometimes even if they legitimately worked an hour overtime. I've looked up what is considered acceptable and unacceptable manipulation of time sheets and what they're doing is illegal according to what I've read.
This has been going on for a long time, apparently there was also someone before her in a similar role. My girlfriend doesn't like doing it either but she has to do what they tell them, she said the people at headquarters made a subltle threat to her when they gave her this responsibility like “we'll know its you if something happens”. They also tell people, “we didn't say you couldn't take a break” to get out of the responsibility of giving people breaks, which I'm pretty sure is still illegal. She says the company seems to be doing a lot more illegal things than that too, including having illegal workers which seem to be the target of most of the overtime “fixes”. I don't know what else but it sounds like if the company can find any loophole to exploit, they will.
So we want to report the company after we have a solid backup plan, which we're working on. I know it's also illegal to retaliate against employees but we think it'd be safer to do anything this way. That said, we're otherwise very unfamiliar with the process of reporting the company and I would appreciate any advice that anyone could give on this matter. Like what to expect if an investigation is started. She wants to make sure the company cannot retaliate against her as well. I'm also concerned if she would be in trouble for anything even though she is following orders.
Thank you.