Karen Jennings Evans, left, and Roland M. Juarez, right, of Hunton Andrews Kurth. Courtesy photos
The California Supreme Court has clarified that state whistleblower retaliation claims should not be evaluated under the McDonnell Douglas test, but rather under the test adopted by the California legislature in 2003, thus clarifying decades of confusion among the courts.
Background of Labor Code §1102.5
California Labor Code §1102.5, which broadly prohibits retaliation against whistleblower employees, was first enacted in 1984. At that time the statute enumerated a variety of substantive protections against whistleblower retaliation. For example, under the law, an employer cannot retaliate against an employee for disclosing information to a government or law enforcement agency, to a person with authority over the employee, or another employee who has the authority to investigate or correct the violation.
