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Hi I'm Tony Munter I'm an attorney at Price Benowitz, and I want to talk today a little
bit about retaliation and whistleblower law.
Can whistleblower laws protect you from retaliation? No they can't. In spite of how their named
whistleblower protection acts, and anti-retaliation laws, they can't prevent retaliation.
What they do provide you with is an opportunity to sue for retaliation if you've been the
subject of that kind of action at the workplace.
So, under the Federal False Claims Act for example, if you've been retaliated against,
you may be able to win two times back pay, certain reinstatement damages, special damages,
and interest. These are valuable things to win in a case, but of course they don't prevent the underlying retaliation.
Under the Federal False Claims Act you also have to show how the retaliation was somehow
related to some aspects of fraud committed against the government that you are reporting or trying to prevent.
If for example, you wanted to prevent your company from ripping off a bunch of grocery
stores, that's not likely to be a case under the Federal False Claims Act.
But perhaps there is some other anti-retaliation law that would apply. Don't despair. There
are many whistleblower laws out there that fight retaliation. There are many whistleblower
laws out there that are designed to help let you sue for retaliation. They just can't prevent
an employer from taking out their anger on an employee and retaliating against the whistleblower.