The Oregon legislature recently passed a sweeping amendment to ORS 659A adding significant additional protections for whistleblowers. This is a BIG win for employees. The bill should go into effect on January 1, 2010 and will apply to actions “commenced” after the effective date of the bill. The addition of this new legislation does not prevent wrongfully terminated employees from bringing additional tort claims for wrongful discharge.
Here is the pertinent text of the new law:
It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discharge, demote, suspend or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against an employee with regard to promotion, compensation or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment for the reason that the employee has in good faith reported information that the employee believes is evidence of a violation of a state or federal law, rule or regulation.
