— Retaliation Claims Category Archives — Page 2 of 5 — Dallas Employment Lawyer Blog Published by Dallas, Texas Employment Lawyers

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.

Texas May Soon Be Another Battleground Over Free Speech Rights in Academia

October 3, 2025 | Austin Campbell

Just at the start of September 2025, two different Texas public universities have fired professors as a result of their speech. Texas State University explicitly fired Professor Thomas Alter because of a speech he gave at a conference of socialists, and Texas A&M University fired Professor Melissa McCoul after a student, in a controversial viral video, confronted her about what she was supposedly teaching about gender in her classroom. While both of these events just happened and it is hard to say what might eventually become of these cases, they each appear to set up a possible confrontation between the universities and their professors’ regarding free speech rights.

And there have been many such confrontations in recent years. In July and August 2025, for instance, the Third Circuit and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeals each issued decisions addressing whether schools and universities could legally fire some employees over their (politically right wing) speech. The point of this article isn’t to dissect these any of those cases—much less the merits of the underlying speech—but to discuss what legal standard courts in the Fifth Circuit (which includes Texas) might apply should disputes over these sorts of terminations go forward.

The First Amendment prevents federal and state governments from infringing on the rights of people to engage in free speech, but that is not an absolute right. Nonetheless, public employees are protected against termination for engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. The standard for this has been set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in a number of cases. To prove that their speech was protected, the public employee must show that they spoke (1) as a citizen (2) on a matter of public concern, and that (3) the public employer did not otherwise have an adequate justification for treating the public employee differently than any other member of the public saying the same thing.

Top 5 Forms of Workplace Retaliation — and How Texas Law Protects Employees

July 11, 2025 | Cassidy Monska

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Cassidy Monska

Retaliation is one of the most frequently alleged forms of workplace misconduct in Texas. Although the law protects employees who assert their rights, many still face adverse consequences after reporting discrimination, requesting accommodations, or participating in investigations. Unfortunately, retaliation can be subtle, delayed, or disguised as ordinary business decisions.

What Is Workplace Retaliation?

The Advantage of Hiring a Board-Certified Attorney: Expertise, Trust, and Success

May 2, 2024 | Deontae Wherry

Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Deontae Wherry

In the dynamic world of business, having the right legal team can mean the difference between success and setbacks. When it comes to protecting your interests and navigating complex legal challenges, nothing beats the expertise and specialization of board-certified employment attorneys. Here’s why investing in a board-certified employment attorney is advantageous for you:

Expertise and Specialization

The Surface Transportation Assistance Act fills in gaps in protections for whistleblowers in the transportation industry.

April 28, 2023 | Austin Campbell

Summary: This article explores some of the nuances of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act’s anti-retaliation provisions, and how they can help you as a transportation employee.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act provides protections for employees who blow the whistle on safety problems on the job. However, those protections do not cover every safety concern or industry, and employees have an extremely short, 30-day window in which to file a retaliation claim with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Fortunately, OSHA also enforces various other more specific whistleblower laws. One important example is the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982. Among other things, that law provided broader protections for a narrower set of people: workers who drive commercial vehicles (including contractors), mechanics on commercial vehicles or employees who otherwise directly affect the safety of those vehicles, and employees who handle freight.

Third Party Retaliation

June 6, 2022 | Deontae Wherry

Suppose both husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, have worked for Democan in the marketing department for 15 years. The couple loves their job because they can help their pastor with his re-election campaign. For most of their career, the couple has reported to the marketing director, Joe Abbott. Mr. Abbott retired seven months ago. Democan then hired Donald Paxton as the new Marketing Director.

Since his first day, Mr. Paxton has had a crush on Mrs. Johnson. Mr. Paxton waits until Mrs. Johnson is alone then he approaches her in the backroom and begins to caress her body. Mrs. Johnson tells Mr. Paxton to stop as his actions were unwelcomed and made her uncomfortable. Mr. Paxton continued with his actions, and Mrs. Johnson continued to ask him to stop. Mrs. Johnson had enough, so she engaged in protected activity by filing multiple sexual harassment complaints with human resources. Human resources did nothing. By this point, Mrs. Johnson feared going to work, so she decided that her only option was to file a charge of discrimination (“charge”) with United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). After she filed with the EEOC, she notified human resources and Mr. Paxton that she formally filed a charge with EEOC.

Mr. Paxton called Mr. Johnson into his office and asked Mr. Johnson if he would instruct his wife to withdraw her charge of discrimination. Mr. Johnson refused. The following day, Mr. Paxton wrote up both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson for insubordination. They asked Mr. Paxton how they were insubordinate, and Mr. Paxton had no response. The following week, Mr. Paxton terminated Mr. Johnson for eating chips at his desk. Mr. Johnson does not believe Mr. Paxton terminated him for eating chips because his other colleagues were eating chips at their desk as well. Mr. Johnson believes that he was terminated because his wife filed a charge.

Mental Health is Wealth: Tap into your resources.

February 10, 2022 | Rob Wiley, P.C.

The death by suicide of Cheslie Kryst was a big wake up call. Mental illness is prevalent amongst Americans now more than ever. According to data collected by Mental Health America, Texas is the second most prevalent state for mental illness. As a Texas employee, you should be aware of the resources available to you.

Historically, many cultures have viewed mental illness as a form of religious punishment or demonic possession. Negative attitudes toward mental illness persisted into the 18^th century in the United States, leading to stigmatization of mental illness, and confinement of mentally ill individuals. As a society, we still have negative views of and oftentimes downplay the severity mental disabilities. In fact, I just watched an episode of the Bachelor where one contestant mocked another because she suffered from ADHD. I was disgusted by such a display of ignorance, but at the same time, was proud that mental health was being talked about on a such a widely televised platform.

I say that to say that although there are individuals who still have negative attitudes toward mental illness, it is no longer a taboo topic that we must be hush hush about. In 2021, approximately 19% of adults experienced a mental illness, which is equivalent to 47 million Americans. In addition, 7.67% of adults reported substance abuse disorders in 2021. Approximately 10.7 million or 4.34% of adults experienced severe suicidal thoughts in 2021. These are just the statistics for adults. Children also experienced high rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts.

Holiday Cheer and Termination Fear: Can I be fired for my behavior at a work holiday party?

November 18, 2021 | Rob Wiley, P.C.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Love them or hate them, this is the time of the year during which employers are finalizing holiday party plans. After a long pause on holiday parties due to Covid-19, many employers are gearing up for their first holiday party since the pandemic. Work holiday parties are a time for employees to get together, socialize, and celebrate a year well done. This is your opportunity to shake hands with the movers and shakers. However, holiday parties are notoriously known to pose serious risks for employees, especially if alcohol is served.

Let’s address the big Texas elephant in the room. Texas is an “at-will” state. That means your employer can fire you for no reason or any reason, short of unlawful discrimination or retaliation. In Texas, termination caused by your actions at a work holiday party is no exception to the “at-will” rule.

Following the holiday season, I typically notice an increase in consultations from employees who were terminated based on their behavior at a holiday party or who were either sexually harassed or discriminated against at a holiday party. A typical misconception is that your behavior and your employer’s behavior at a holiday party is not subject to workplace polices or procedures or employment laws. However, you are still subject to workplace policies and your employer is still subject to labor and employment laws, regardless of whether the party is held at work or off-site.

When it doesn’t pay to be the boss: the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “Manager Rule”

September 9, 2021 | Austin Campbell

Summary: This article gives a brief overview of the problems that the “manager rule” can cause high-level employees trying to raise concerns about pay issues, as well as the limits of that rule.

Categories: At-will; Wrongful termination; Retaliation Claims; Fair Pay; Wage and Hour; Tipped Employees

If your employer turns on you and starts taking actions against you because you raised a complaint protected by law, you may be suffering unlawful retaliation. However, not all laws treat all complaints—and all whistleblowers—the same. As a result, even clear retaliation might not always cross over the line into actually being illegal.

You might be tired of “Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies,” but don’t sleep on it!

June 4, 2021 | Austin Campbell

Many employees may be unsure what to do if they discover they have been treated unlawfully by their employer. Going straight into a lawsuit can be a scary step, and is not always the right one. If you thought “there must be some government agency that can investigate and fix what happened,” often you would be right. However, that is not always the case, and sometimes the existence of that agency can complicate things. This article gives a basic overview of the “exhaustion of administrative remedies,” so that if you find yourself in that situation, you might know to avoid some pitfalls in the law and take advantage of opportunities to right how you were wronged.

Not all employment laws are created equal. Some, like the laws that prohibit things like sex, race, or age discrimination, are “administered” by agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Texas Workforce Commission—Civil Rights Division (for equivalent Texas laws). That means that you can file a complaint with those agencies to be investigated and (ideally) resolved before any lawsuit needs to be filed. Similarly, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration administers OSH Act retaliation claims, the Department of Labor administers unpaid overtime claims, and the National Labor Relations Board administers claims (like for anti-union activities) under the National Labor Relations Act. There are lots of agencies like those.

For some types of legal claims, like unpaid overtime, you can decide to go the agency or just file a lawsuit. For other laws, like the Family and Medical Leave Act, there is not an agency to go to at all, and your main recourse is to just file a lawsuit. Still other laws, like the OSH Act or the NLRA, make it so you can only bring a complaint with the government, and generally do not have any right to file a suit at all.