Is every employee who makes a formal complaint considered a “whistleblower”?
The federal District Court says no.
Mark Shulthies, a long time Amtrak employee working in California, sent an email to his supervisor complaining that the company’s decision to reorganize certain aspects of its service between the Bay Area and Bakersfield posed a “danger to the public.” Amtrak took no action on Shulthies’ complaint. A few months later, he was fired.
Shulthies sued, alleging that he was fired for being a whistleblower. Two separate provisions of the California Labor Code protect employees who make complaints about safety issues, or about their employer violating state or federal law. Shulthies sued under both statutes.
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Siding with Amtrak, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed Shulthies’ case. The court ruled that while Shulthies complained that the route reorganization implemented by Amtrak would cause service disruptions and create “unsafe working conditions,” these complaints were too general to qualify as complaints about safety issues or violations of law.
The court also emphasized that not every employee complaint deserves whistleblower protection. Rather, the law only protects employees who are making bona fide complaints about specific safety hazards, or who have an objective reason to believe that their employer is breaking the law. Thus, Shulthies had no basis for challenging his termination.
We’ll have more on this case, and on which employee complaints are protected by whistleblower laws, in an upcoming issue of California Employer Advisor.