When an employee has a sense of loyalty to the company with which he or she works, it can be difficult to admit that there may be some wrongdoing or inaccurate information being circulated. Should an employee, including those in Wisconsin, feel that there is information that needs to be corrected, they could be deemed a whistleblower and face retaliation from employers or co-workers. Company reputations can be damaged if it is found out that false claims were made, and they may wish to take measures to ensure that negative publicity does not circulate.
A police officer has received his job back after what he claims was a firing due to retaliation. The officer apparently gave out corrected information on the police department’s kidnapping statistics, which were in fact 30 percent lower than the department had reported. He reports that after he made the information known, he was the victim of possibly unwarranted accusations and investigations into his work. He was then later terminated from his position earlier this year after enduring years of that type of treatment.
The officer reportedly sued the city in which he worked for retaliation two years ago as a result of the alleged harassment he was being forced to endure. After his termination earlier this year, he was able to come to a settlement with the department without going to trial and is reportedly set to return as a police officer later in the fall. Though he is able to return to work, he still had to face hardships for an extended period of time for simply exposing the truth.
Situations such as the one this officer had to go through can be very discouraging to people who may feel there are issues in the workplace that need to be reported. Witnessing retaliation against and the wrongful termination of a whistleblower can cause employees to be afraid to speak out due to fear of losing their jobs. Anyone who feels that they have been mistreated because they made negative information about an organization known may find information on Wisconsin employment laws beneficial to see if they could be entitled to compensation for retaliation brought against them.
Source: kpho.com, “Fired Phoenix P. D. whistle blower to get his job back,” Rebecca Thomas, July 26, 2013
