PROTECTION AGAINST RETALIATION

LEGAL DEFINITION OF RETALIATION AND PROTECTED ACTIVITIES

Retaliation is defined as any adverse action taken by an employer or superior against an employee for exercising his or her legal right to report harassment or participate in an investigation.

The law explicitly protects these "protected activities," which include filing a formal complaint, opposing discriminatory practices, or serving as a witness to corroborate a colleague's story.

It is critical to understand that punishment for whistleblowing is a separate and often more serious legal offense than the original harassment.

Imagine that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. works at a corporation and files a complaint because his supervisor makes racist and sexist jokes.

If the company, instead of investigating, decides to fire him, suspend him or "freeze" his pay under the guise of "lack of loyalty," it would be committing illegal retaliation.

Legal protection shields King so that he can speak out without his livelihood being used as a weapon against him.

HOW TO IDENTIFY AND REPORT RETALIATORY BEHAVIOR

Retaliation is not always as overt as a firing. They are often subtle and designed to force the victim to voluntarily resign (constructive discharge).

These behaviors include unjustified shift changes, reassignment to demeaning or menial tasks, deliberate exclusion from key meetings, the "law of ice" by management, or a sudden negative performance evaluation after years of impeccable record.

If the scientist Rosalind Franklin reported a colleague for stealing credit and verbally harassing her, and was suddenly moved from the main lab to an unventilated basement archive, or barred from attending conferences where she was previously a speaker, she would be suffering retaliation.

Even if she has not been fired, her working conditions have been negatively altered as punishment.

Identifying these patterns is vital to report them immediately to the committee or human resources as a new infraction.

ASSURANCES OF NON-PENALTY FOR REPORTING IN GOOD FAITH

There is a widespread fear that, if a whistleblowing does not result in a guilty verdict, the whistleblower will be punished.

However, prevention policies state that the inability to prove an accusation does not equate to lying.

If the report was made in "good faith" (honestly believing that an offense occurred), the employee is protected from any disciplinary action, even if the investigation concludes that there was insufficient evidence.

Suppose writer Émile Zola accuses a manager of inappropriate conduct based on what he perceived to be inappropriate touching.

If after the committee's investigation it is determined that it was an ac