To "blow the whistle" is to report the illegal, dangerous, wasteful, or unethical acts of one's employer to the proper authorities. Since employers may be inclined to retaliate against employees who expose such liabilities, states have whistleblower laws to protect employees from any adverse action taken after such a disclosure. Most states protect public sector employees, but some states also provide similar protections for private sector employees as well. Even if the alleged illegal activity is not confirmed by the authorities, employees are protected as long as they acted in good faith.
Idaho Whistleblower Protections at a Glance
The state of Idaho protects public sector whistleblowers from retaliation, offering remedies in civil court. If an employee prevails in a whistleblower lawsuit, he or she may seek reinstatement, back pay, court costs, and attorney's fees. If you are a federal employee working in Idaho, you can learn more about the law and the complaint filing process at the Department of Labor's Whistleblowers.gov Web site.
See the following charts to learn more about Idaho's whistleblower protections. See FindLaw's Whistleblowers section for more articles and resources.
| Code Section | 6-2101, et. seq. |
| Prohibited Employer Activity | Can not take adverse action against an employee because employee or its representative communicates in good faith the existence of any waste of public funds, property or manpower or violation or suspected violation of a law, rule, or regulation including participating in an investigation, hearing, court proceeding, legislative or other inquiry or other form of administrative review, or where employee refused or objected to directive they reasonably believe violates law, rule, or regulation and employer cannot implement rules or policies that unreasonably restrict employee's ability to document a violation |
| Protection for Public or Private Employees? | Public |
| Opportunity for Employer to Correct? | - |
| Remedies | Civil action: for injunction and/or actual damages within 180 days of violation. Court remedies: injunction, reinstatement, reinstate full benefits and seniority rights, back pay, reasonable court costs and attorney's fees |
| Penalties | Civil fine: maximum $500 |
Note: State laws are constantly changing, or at least subject to change at any time, most often through the enactment of newly signed legislation or decisions from appellate courts. You should contact an Idaho whistleblower attorney or conduct your own legal research to verify the state law(s) you are researching.
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Idaho Whistleblower Laws: Related Resources
