Telling Somebody At Work
Lab. Law § 740 — a reasonable belief, a good faith effort to tell a supervisor, and two years to sue
An employer may not take retaliatory action against an employee, whether or not within the scope of the employee's job duties, because the employee does any of the following.
- Discloses or threatens to disclose, to a supervisor or a public body, an activity, policy or practice of the employer the employee reasonably believes violates a law, rule or regulation, or poses a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.
- Provides information to, or testifies before, a public body investigating it.
- Objects to, or refuses to participate in, it.
Telling the supervisor first, with exceptions. Protection for a disclosure to a public body requires a good faith effort to bring the matter to a supervisor's attention and a reasonable opportunity to correct it, except where there is an imminent and serious danger to public health or safety, where reporting to the supervisor would reasonably be expected to destroy evidence, endanger a minor or bring physical harm, or where the supervisor is reasonably believed already to know and not to be correcting it.
Retaliation includes threats about immigration. Retaliatory action includes threatening to contact, or contacting, immigration authorities about the suspected status of the employee or a family or household member, and actions harming a former employee's current or future employment.
The deadline and the remedies. An action may be brought within two years after the retaliatory action, with a right to a jury trial. A court may order an injunction, reinstatement or front pay, fringe benefits and seniority, lost wages, costs and attorney's fees, a civil penalty, and punitive damages where the violation was willful, malicious or wanton. Every employer posts a notice of these protections.
Federal statutes protect reports in particular fields, such as workplace safety, securities and federal contracts, with their own agencies and deadlines, and are not on this page. Whether a particular report was protected, and whether what followed was retaliation for it, are questions for a licensed New York attorney.
Sources for this section (1)
- Labor Law § 740 — Retaliatory action by employers; prohibition
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed New York attorney.