Glendale Workplace Retaliation Lawyer

What Is Workplace Retaliation

Workplace retaliation occurs when an employer takes an adverse action against an employee because that employee exercised a legally protected right. The protected activity and the punishment for it do not need to happen on the same day, or even in the same month. Over the past many years, employers have become savvy about how to discriminate, frequently retaliating gradually, building a paper trail of performance criticism before making the move.

California law protects employees under two primary frameworks: the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which covers retaliation related to discrimination and harassment complaints, and Labor Code §1102.5, which protects employees who report suspected violations of law to supervisors, internal compliance channels, or government agencies. Both statutes also cover retaliation against employees who simply refuse to participate in conduct they reasonably believe to be illegal.

What Counts as Protected Activity

An employer cannot take adverse action against you for engaging in any of the following:

• Reporting discrimination or harassment: Filing an HR complaint, reporting to a supervisor, or filing with California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD) or the EEOC about conduct you believe violates FEHA.
• Requesting or taking protected leave: Requesting FMLA or CFRA leave, taking pregnancy disability leave, or requesting reasonable accommodation for a disability. Adverse action following a leave request is among the most common patterns we see.
• Reporting wage or safety violations: Complaints about unpaid wages, missed breaks, unsafe working conditions, or Cal/OSHA violations (made internally to a supervisor or externally to the Labor Commissioner or Cal/OSHA) are protected under Labor Code §1102.5.
• Participating in an investigation: Providing testimony, cooperating with an HR investigation as a witness, or assisting a co-worker in pursuing a complaint are all protected activities, even when the underlying complaint was not your own.
• Refusing to participate in illegal conduct: An employee who refuses a supervisor’s directive because they reasonably believed it would violate the law is protected from retaliation for that refusal, even if the underlying conduct turned out not to be illegal.
• Filing a workers’ compensation claim: California law prohibits termination or adverse action in response to a workers’ compensation claim or inquiry.

Under Labor Code §1102.5, the report does not need to be directed to a government agency to qualify for protection. A good-faith complaint to a supervisor or to someone with authority to investigate within the company is sufficient. The employee does not need to prove the underlying conduct was actually illegal, but only that they had reasonable cause to believe it was.

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

Retaliation claims carry strict deadlines, and the evidence is easier to gather now than after your employer has had time to build a paper trail. Don’t hesitate to call us!

Get Your Free Consultation
Call 888-928-8425

What Retaliation Looks Like

Employers rarely announce that an adverse action is retaliation. The stated reason is almost always framed as performance, business necessity, or a personnel decision unrelated to the protected activity. The evidence that exposes the actual reason lies in timing, documentation patterns, and comparative treatment.

Common forms of retaliation:

• Termination following a complaint, leave request, or internal report, especially when no documented performance issues preceded the event.
• Sudden negative performance reviews, after a protected activity, from a supervisor who previously gave consistent positive feedback.
• Demotion, schedule reduction, or pay cut occurring within weeks of a complaint.
• Exclusion from meetings, projects, or client relationships that the employee previously participated in.
• Reassignment to a less desirable role, location, or shift.
• Denial of a promotion that went to a less qualified employee after the protected activity.
• Increased scrutiny (monitoring, write-ups, or verbal warnings) that began after the complaint.
• Hostile treatment from supervisors or management that was not present before the protected activity.

The pretext pattern: In most retaliation cases, the employer does not act immediately. The common pattern is: employee raises a complaint → employer begins documenting performance concerns → employer uses the documentation to justify termination weeks or months later. Courts examine whether that documentation existed before the complaint and whether comparable employees who engaged in no protected activity were treated the same way.

The Legal Standard in California

The legal standard differs depending on which statute applies.

Under FEHA, the employee must show that the protected activity was a substantial motivating factor in the adverse employment decision — not the only reason, but a real one that actually contributed to the outcome.

Under Labor Code §1102.5, the standard is more favorable to employees: the protected whistleblowing activity need only be a contributing factor in the adverse action. Once the employee establishes that, the burden shifts to the employer to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have made the same decision regardless of the protected activity. This higher burden on the employer reflects the California Supreme Court’s decision in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, Inc., (2022) 12 Cal. 5th 703.

What You Can Recover

A successful retaliation claim can include:

• Back Pay: All wages, bonuses, and benefits lost from the date of the retaliatory action through case resolution.
• Future Lost Earnings: Compensation for ongoing economic harm, including reduced earning capacity if the retaliation forced a career change or gap in employment.
• Emotional Distress Damages: FEHA allows recovery for psychological harm, such as anxiety, humiliation, and reputational damage, with no statutory cap.
• Punitive Damages: Available under FEHA when the employer acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. Courts have awarded punitive damages in retaliation cases where supervisors knew about a complaint and targeted the employee anyway.
• Reinstatement: Courts may order the employee returned to their prior position. Most clients in retaliation cases prefer financial compensation over returning to the employer.
• Attorney Fees and Costs: Prevailing employees recover attorney fees under FEHA. Under Labor Code §1102.5, fee recovery requires obtaining some form of relief for the employee, so proper claim structure from the outset matters.

Filing Deadlines

Retaliation claims carry different deadlines depending on which law applies and which agency you file with.

Which agency you file with, and in what order, can affect the remedies available to you. Filing with the wrong agency or missing a deadline eliminates your claim altogether, regardless of its merits. Contact our exceptional attorneys before filing anything.

Common Situations That Support a Retaliation Claim

Not every difficult workplace situation constitutes retaliation. The situations below typically do, though, because the timing and pattern of the employer’s actions connect the protected activity to the adverse action.

• Fired after reporting a co-worker’s harassment. You reported sexual harassment or discrimination to HR. Within weeks, your supervisor began documenting performance concerns that were never raised before. You were terminated two months later. The performance narrative built after the complaint is a pattern courts take seriously.
• Demoted after requesting FMLA leave. You notified your employer of a serious health condition and your need for protected leave. Shortly after, you were reassigned to a different role with reduced responsibilities or removed from a project you had led. Adverse action following a leave request is retaliation regardless of whether the leave was formally approved.
• Terminated after reporting wage violations to HR. You raised concerns about missed overtime pay or meal break violations with a supervisor or HR. The employer cited an unrelated performance issue to justify your termination. Under Labor Code §1102.5, a good-faith internal complaint about wage violations is protected, requiring the employer to prove it would have terminated you anyway.
• Punished for refusing to follow an illegal directive. Your manager asked you to falsify records, misclassify employees, or ignore a safety protocol. You declined. Shortly after, you received a write-up or were removed from your position. Refusing to participate in conduct you reasonably believed was illegal is a protected activity under §1102.5.
• Adverse action after participating as a witness. A co-worker filed a discrimination complaint, and you provided a statement or cooperated with the investigation. You were not the complainant, but you experienced adverse treatment afterward. FEHA protects witnesses and participants, not only the person who filed the original complaint.