What Laws Does North Carolina Have That Protect Employees Against Whistleblower Retaliation?
North Carolina has a very robust set of state laws to protect whistleblowers. Our North Carolina whistleblower attorney, Kathryn Abernethy, explains what each of them is, and how they can help protect employees from whistleblower retaliation. This is part of an ongoing series where our attorney Abernethy discusses North Carolina employment law. For her full video series, click here. You can also view the video below, or read the provided transcript.
Transcript: What Laws Does North Carolina Have That Protect Employees Against Whistleblower Retaliation?
North Carolina has a surprisingly robust whistleblower protection rubric between tort law and statutory law. I’m going to highlight two statutes and then a tort that frequently, I think kind of get at most whistleblower conduct here in North Carolina. And I want to caveat this by saying obviously everybody in North Carolina has access to the protections of federal whistleblower law, right?
So, Sarbanes-Oxley, the federal False Claims Act, federal OSHA, other, you know, staff, other federal statutes that have whistleblower protections. Obviously here in North Carolina, those still all apply.
But here in this state, we have I, I want to highlight three specific areas of state law where we offer special or unusual protection, I would say for employee whistleblowers.
North Carolina False Claims Act
One is that here in North Carolina we have a mini False Claims Act. This applies if you’re employed at an employer that has a state contract. So, let’s say your company is doing work for the state of North Carolina and you happen to know that they are defrauding the state of North Carolina that they are not performing services for example, for which they’re billing the state.
Under our state mini False Claims Act, you still have a right to be free from retaliation if you report that false claim activity.
Also here in North Carolina, we also have a mini in that many FCA statute. There’s also a qui tam right. So, you can’t act as a private attorney general bringing action on behalf of the state of North Carolina to pull back any monies that were improperly paid to a state contractor. So that’s one set of state whistleblower laws that I think not a lot of people know that we have.
North Carolina Whistleblower Protection Act
Another is the State Whistleblower Protection Act. This is a state statute that gives state employees a right of action of private civil action for damages if they report fraud, waste, abuse, or violation of state or federal law by a state official.
So, let’s say you’re working. I’ll give an example of a case that I brought here in North Carolina. I had an employee who was working for the Department of Information Technology who brought up to both state, the state auditor and the federal oversight agencies and management on the federal side that North Carolina was wasting, misusing and misplacing federal and state funds that were supposed to go to improving North Carolinas IT systems for Medicare and Medicaid.
Those kinds of reports are protected activity, and if you are retaliated against as a result of a report of that nature, you do have a private right of action in North Carolina.
Now that only applies to state employees or employees of not just the state agencies but also, for example universities. You know, anything that you would think of as a state funded entity that that’s going to be covered by that particular provision.
North Carolina Wrongful Termination and Violation of Public Policy Tort
Then we’ve also got here in North Carolina a tort called Wrongful Termination and Violation of Public Policy that’s been recognized by our courts. Basically, what that does is that protects employees who have reported or refused to engage in conduct that is contrary to a state statute, constitutional provision or public policy.
So, if you’re being asked to violate state law in your employment, you absolutely have the right to say, no, I can’t do that. It violates state law. Here’s the state law that it violates.
If they terminate you for that or if they terminate you. And this wrongful termination tort does require termination. So, the ultimate adverse employment action must be taken.
But if they terminate you for that, you have a tort claim under wrongful termination and violation of public policy. Here in North Carolina, the wrongful termination and violation of public policy tort definitely applies, if you’re employed by a private business. It may or may not apply, if you are a governmental employee.
