Decided May 22, 2023
People ex rel. Garcia-Brower v. Kolla’s, Inc., S269456
The California Supreme Court held today that Labor Code section 1102.5(b), which protects an employee from retaliation for disclosing unlawful activity to an employer or government agency, encompasses reports of information already known to the recipient.
Background: A bartender at a nightclub in Orange County complained to the club’s owner that she had not been paid for her previous three shifts. In response, the owner threatened to report the bartender to immigration authorities and terminated her employment.
The bartender filed a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which found that the nightclub owner’s threats and termination of the bartender’s employment violated several provisions of the Labor Code. The Labor Commissioner then filed an action under Labor Code section 1102.5(b), which prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for “disclosing information” about suspected violations of the law to their employers or a government agency.
The trial court and Court of Appeal ruled against the Commissioner on the section 1102.5(b) claim. The Court of Appeal concluded that a “disclosure” of information required “the revelation of something new, or at least believed by the discloser to be new, to the person or agency to whom the disclosure is made,” but the bartender had not disclosed anything the owner did not already know.
Issue: Does Labor Code...
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