One of the areas of law that I deal with most is retaliation. And I think that it starts on the employer side with training. There is a natural impulse from any supervisor whether or not it’s conscious or subconscious to get back an employee who maybe complains about them or complains about the company. Even if it’s from a semi good intention place to protect the company the training of those supervisors to make sure that they take no retaliatory steps after an employee has come forward with a complaint is absolutely critical. And without that, companies will get in trouble.

It’s important that supervisors when faced with those complaints that they immediately communicate those to HR, the human resources department, and that they also consult a lawyer. Because I think that there are steps that employers think that they can take that they don’t believe will be considered retaliatory under the law but actually are. For example, transfers, minimal transfers, you know the removal of support staff, reassignment of projects, things that are everyday allowable events in the workplace. If supervisors engage those, collectively they can be considered retaliation. And so, training and consultation with a lawyer are absolutely critical in preventing retaliation claims.