— Employee Rights Category Archives — Page 4 of 10 — Dallas Employment Lawyer Blog Published by Dallas, Texas Employment Lawyers

Standing Up for Safety: How Dallas Workers Can Fight Retaliation Under OSHA

October 7, 2025 | Robert J. Wiley

Every employee deserves a safe workplace. Whether you work in construction, health care, retail, or an office, your employer has a legal duty to provide an environment free from known hazards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created to enforce these rules and protect employees when companies cut corners. But too often, workers hesitate to speak up because they fear retaliation.

The truth is that retaliation is common—and it’s illegal. Workers who raise safety concerns, request inspections, or file OSHA complaints are protected by federal law. Retaliation can take many forms: sudden termination, reduced hours, demotion, harassment, or even blacklisting that makes it harder to find work in the future. These actions are meant to intimidate, but OSHA’s whistleblower provisions exist precisely to stop employers from silencing their workers.

Filing an OSHA complaint is straightforward. You can file online, by mail, or by calling your local OSHA office. Complaints can even be made anonymously if you want to protect your identity. Dallas employees who see unsafe conditions—such as faulty equipment, exposure to toxic chemicals, or lack of fall protection—have the right to demand change. Once a complaint is filed, OSHA can inspect the workplace, interview employees, and require the employer to fix violations.

Fired for Following the Law? Know Your Rights in Texas

October 5, 2025 | Deontae Wherry

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Deontae Wherry

Picture this: you are at work when someone hands you a subpoena. You did not ask for it, and maybe you do not even want to be involved, but now you are legally required to show up in court or provide documents. You want to do the right thing, so you comply with the subpoena. But when you get back to work, your boss is not happy. Maybe he/she cut your hours, your responsibilities change, or, worst of all, he/she terminates your job.

If that sounds unfair, that’s because it is. And, in Texas, it is also illegal.

Legal Backlash: Confronting the Impact on LGBTQ+ Workplace Rights

June 6, 2025 | Robert J. Wiley

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Rob Wiley

On May 15, 2025 a conservative judge struck down federal guidance protecting gay and transgender employees from discrimination and harassment in the workplace. This is not normal or business as usual, this is a sledgehammer-style legal assault on our community. Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk’s opinion undoes decades of progress, declaring it legal to harass and bully workers who happen to be gay or trans. As a gay employment lawyer, I want to address what this means for us.

Employment discrimination against gay and trans people is real. We all have to have a job, and it’s all too common to have a co-worker or manager who resents having to work with someone who is gay or trans. That’s why this decision hits hard, it’s going to have a real impact on real life.

Why employment law cases should be focused, not scattershot

May 9, 2025 | Robert J. Wiley

Summary: This article discusses why it is strategically important for employees, when pursuing legal claims against their employer, to simplify their case as much as possible.

Many employees who come to us and explain that they believe their employer discriminated or retaliated against them state that they think there are multiple illegal reasons for their employer’s actions. For instance, someone might tell me they believe their employer fired them because of their age, because they have a disability, because they took FMLA leave, and because they previously reported the discrimination because of age.

At the end of the day, in almost any employment case the burden of proof is on the employee asserting legal claims against their employer. Part of that usually means the employee must prove that they were fired because of an illegal reason or reasons. Typically that burden takes the form of what is called “but for” causation—but for the person having a disability, they would not have been fired, for instance.

Don’t Work for Free: Know Your Rights as an Employee in Texas

May 2, 2025 | Deontae Wherry

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Deontae Wherry

In Texas, every employee has the right to fair compensation for their work. You should never work for free, and it’s crucial to understand your rights regarding minimum wage, overtime pay, and regular payment schedules. This blog will inform you about these rights and what to do if your employer fails to pay you.

Minimum Wage

Retaliation Doesn’t Discriminate: When Pretext Becomes Punishment in the Workplace

April 25, 2025 | Robert J. Wiley

When people think about workplace discrimination, they usually picture the person who’s directly targeted—a woman passed over for a promotion, an employee of color subjected to racist comments, or an LGBTQ+ worker harassed for who they are. But retaliation law protects more than just the victim. In fact, one of the most common—and most overlooked—forms of illegal retaliation is what happens when an ally speaks up.

Under federal and Texas law, it is unlawful for an employer to retaliate against someone who reports, opposes, or even just participates in an investigation into workplace discrimination. And yet, every day in Texas workplaces, employees who stand up for others are pushed out, written up, or fired altogether. It doesn’t matter if you’re not the person being harassed—if you raise concerns about discrimination or report it to HR, you’re engaging in protected activity. That means your employer can’t punish you for it, no matter how “at-will” your job is.

Still, retaliation rarely walks in the front door. It’s almost never labeled clearly. Instead, it hides behind what lawyers call pretext—a supposedly neutral explanation that’s used to justify a decision that’s actually rooted in something else. It might be a sudden complaint about performance after years of glowing reviews. A dress code violation that was never enforced before. A safety rule applied unevenly. Something that looks neutral on paper—but in practice, only one person is punished.

Navigating the Workplace When You Have Ongoing Employment Claims

February 13, 2025 | Cassidy Monska

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Cassidy Monska

Finding yourself in a situation where you are still employed by an employer you have ongoing employment claims against can be incredibly stressful. It’s crucial to balance protecting your legal rights while maintaining professionalism and protecting your position.

Here are some practical steps to help guide you on how to handle working in a hostile or potentially contentious environment when you have an active legal claim against your employer. These steps can help reduce stress, protect your rights, and ensure you approach the situation effectively.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short: Stand Up for Fair Treatment

February 7, 2025 | Deontae Wherry

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Deontae Wherry

As an employee in Texas, you don’t have many rights because of the at-will doctrine. At-will doctrine simply states that an employer can terminate an employee for any reason or no reason at all. Despite this, you work hard and contribute to your employer’s overall success. You deserve to be treated with fairness and respect. Unfortunately, many workers face broken promises from their employers—whether it’s a denied raise, an unfulfilled promotion, or ignored benefits. If your employer has failed to honor their commitments, it’s time to stand up for yourself. You don’t have to accept mistreatment, and better opportunities exist.

Your Work Deserves Recognition

Federal agencies’ lack of quorum(s) during the second Trump administration may harm employees’ rights.

February 5, 2025 | Robert J. Wiley

Summary: This article discusses the implications of the Trump administration’s removal of members from independent federal agencies tasked with protecting employee rights.

I previously wrote about the possibility of the then-incoming Trump administration implementing various aspects of Project 2025. Unfortunately, it seems that one way the Trump administration may go about pursuing that agenda is by stripping agencies of their ability to act by removing their “quorums.”

Some federal agencies (in particular, those related to things such as employee or consumer rights) are organized as independent boards or commissions with legal limits on when a president can remove board members or commissioners. These agencies commonly only have Congressional authority to act as a full body—not through individual board members or commissioners. These sorts of agencies generally require a quorum, a minimum number of members, to have that legal authority. On the one hand this setup makes sense, as it prevents these agencies from being run by just one person, making them more independent of changing administrations. But this also means that if a presidential administration removes members—or simply fails to fill vacancies—that can eliminate an agency’s quorum and thus delay its ability to take many actions.

“Project 2025” on Employment Law

December 16, 2024 | Robert J. Wiley

This article briefly highlights parts of Project 2025 (a conservative policy wish-list that the Trump administration seems likely to implement) that would have an impact on employment law and workers’ rights.

During his campaign, Donald Trump denied having anything to do with Project 2025, a conservative policy wish-list created by the Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 openly bills itself as a toolkit for the incoming administration. Tellingly, Trump has gone on to propose multiple nominees for his administration with close ties to the creation of the document. For instance, Trump intends to appoint Russ Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought wrote one section of Project 2025 in which he espoused deep cuts to federal programs and agencies. One way or the other, it seems that the Trump administration is likely to try to implement at least some aspects of Project 2025. So what does it have to say about employment law?

Section 18 of Project 2025 addresses the “Department of Labor and related agencies.” Initially, when it comes to employment law Project 2025 says its goal is to help “reclaim the role of each American worker as the protagonist in his or her own life.” However, the proposals that it gives top billing to seem to have little connection to that.