The Supreme Court of California, in response to a question certified to it by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, clarified on January 27 in a unanimous opinion that California Labor Code Section 1102.6 provides the framework for evaluating whistleblower retaliation claims filed under Labor Code Section 1102.5.
In bringing Section 1102.5 retaliation claims, employees are not required to satisfy the three-part burden-shifting test the US Supreme Court established in 1973 in its landmark McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green decision. The Supreme Court of California held that whistleblower retaliation claims brought under Section 1102.5 are to be analyzed using the “contributing factor” standard in Labor Code Section 1102.6, much like the more lenient and employee-favorable evidentiary standard for evaluating whistleblower retaliation claims brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, 18 USC § 1514A (SOX). Under this more lenient standard, an employee establishes a retaliation claim under Section 1102.5 with a preponderance of the evidence that the whistleblowing activity was a “contributing factor” to an adverse employment action.
Labor Code Section 1102.5 prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee for disclosing or providing information to the government or to an employer conduct that the employee reasonably believed to be a violation of law. Prior to the 2003 enactment of Labor Code Section 1102.6, courts generally used the McDonnell...
FERNDALE, Wash. — On March 30, 2026, Merissa G. Saenz, 27, was sentenced in Whatcom County Superior Court after pleading guilty to malicious prosecution and entering an Alford plea to making a fal...