{"id":531,"date":"2021-11-14T15:30:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T15:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forework.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2022-12-24T15:31:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T15:31:21","slug":"ny-significantly-expands-whistleblower-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forework.com\/ny-significantly-expands-whistleblower-law\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Significantly Expands Whistleblower Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Under NY’s amended Whistleblower Law, employers will have to be more cautious about how they interact with their employees.<\/p>\n\n\n
Although New York has had an employment-related whistleblower statute for decades, many employers may not have been aware of it. That is because the statute itself \u2013 N.Y. Labor Law Section 740 \u2013 has been fairly limited in its scope and application. Indeed, it has only protected employees who disclose employer activity that violates laws relating to public health and safety or to health care fraud. Disclosures of other unlawful activities have not been protected by Section 740.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting next year, this is about to change<\/strong>. Gov. Hochul has signed a bill that will amend and expand Section 740. The amended law, which is scheduled to take effect on January 26, 2022, drastically expands the breadth and scope of Section 740 by making it significantly easier for New York workers to bring a claim, lengthening the statute of limitations, and imposing a notice requirement on employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Key Changes to Section 740:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previously, Section 740 was a narrow statute that primarily barred employers from taking retaliatory action against employees only where the employee had disclosed or threatened to disclose to a supervisor or public body, or had objected to or refused to participate in \u201can activity, policy or practice of the employer that is in violation of law, rule or regulation which violation creates and presents a substantial and specific danger to the public health or safety, or which constitutes health care fraud.\u201d The prior version of the law thus required that an actual legal violation have occurred \u2013 i.e., an employee\u2019s reasonable belief that a violation had occurred was insufficient \u2013 and was intended to curb only activities that posed a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety or that constituted health care fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The amended statute, however, broadly expands this scope of protected activity. Specifically, the law now bars employers from taking retaliatory action where the employee discloses or threatens to disclose to a supervisor or public body, or objects to or refuses to participate in \u201can activity that the employee reasonably believes is in violation of law, rule or regulation or that the employee reasonably believes poses a substantial and specific danger to the public health or safety.\u201d The new definition, therefore, essentially protects, and bars employers from retaliating against workers who report any actual, or <\/strong>reasonably perceived<\/strong> by the employee, violation of any law, rule, regulation, executive order, or judicial or administrative decision, ruling, or order at all, regarding of its subject matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Employer recommendations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Employers should immediately train their human resources personnel and supervisors about this new law and update any relevant policies (including but not limited to whistleblower policies, retaliation policies, and complaint procedure policies). These expanded provisions will create a very easy way for disgruntled employees to sue their employers. Thus, managers and first-line supervisors will need to be trained to better recognize these new \u201ctraps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, employers should ensure that a notice of employee whistleblower protections, rights, and obligations is posted by January 26, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under NY’s amended Whistleblower Law, employers will have to be more cautious about how they interact with their employees. Although New York has had an employment-related whistleblower statute for decades, many employers may not have been aware of it. That is because the statute itself \u2013 N.Y. Labor Law Section 740 \u2013 has been fairly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employment-articles"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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