San Francisco Employment Law Firm Blog
For years, I believed that since the whole purpose of establishing and running non-profit companies in California is providing some kind of service for the public good and not for profit. As a result, I assume that working in non-profit organizations must be a fulfilling experience on more levels and that the relationships between employees and the way the employees are treated by their management is also superior to the for-profit sector.
However, a number of claims I worked on reflect a different reality. Workplace Retaliation in non-profit agencies is quite common. One of the more common forms of retaliation is against a mid-level managers. A manager might suspect or even witness how funds provided to the employer by the government agencies or through other fund raising efforts are mishandled or even embezzled. That manager makes an internal complaint to his boss. That superior manager might be involved directly or indirectly in the unlawful and unethical handling of the funds and thus he tries to push the issue under the rug or starts building a paper trail of unsubstantial allegations of performance issues or insubordination to “lawfully” terminate the whistleblower.
Such retaliation claims are not easy prove that the year certainly worth investigation, as with proper documentation and witnesses to both – the unlawful activity and the retaliation, such claims can result in both substantial settlement or trial verdicts and changes in the company that assure fair proper management of funds.