Santa Clara, CAIn the lawsuit The People ex rel. Lilia Garcia-Brower v. Kolla's Inc., the California Supreme Court has held that an employee who makes a whistleblower complaint to his or her employer may bring a retaliation claim under the California labor code’s whistleblower statute, even if the subject of the complaint was already known.
Previously, an employee whistleblower complaint regarding an alleged violation of the law that was already known to the employer who received the complaint was not protected by law. The attorney for Kolla’s, a nightclub in Orange County, argued that California’s whistleblower statutes don't shield workers from retaliation for disclosing wrongdoing when the recipient already knows of the alleged misconduct, but Supreme Court justices questioned how employees would know whether the alleged misconduct had already been reported before they complained.
According to dictionary definitions of “disclose,” the information disclosed need not be previously unknown to the recipient. The appellate court held that "disclosure" in the statute means "the revelation of something new, or at least to whom the disclosure is made," but California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower argued...
Field Marshal Lord Bramall, one of Britain’s greatest soldiers, was known affectionately to his grandchildren as “Papa”. Alex Bramall, his grandson, a fashion photographer, was particularly close ...