Two federal financial whistleblower programs recently released record-breaking reports for Fiscal Year 2022, which ran through September.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees cryptocurrency, reported more than $3 billion in sanctions from all whistleblower-related actions and an increase in whistleblower tips. The CFTC’s Whistleblower Office received 1,506 whistleblower tips and complaints in FY 2022, an increase of 50% from the prior fiscal year.

And in October 2021, the CFTC Whistleblower Office announced an award of nearly $200 million to a single whistleblower – the largest award issued since Congress established whistleblower programs at the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. 

In its annual report, the CFTC Whistleblower Office said the majority of tips it received in FY 2022 involved fraudulent misappropriation and solicitation involving crypto and digital asset, and said there’s been a rise in both crypto/digital asset schemes and some general investment schemes originating from online communications through social media or dating sites, for example, romance scams.

Following the FTX collapse, CFTC commissioner Kristin Johnson recently told Bloomberg that “in the context of the digital-asset space, the value of having those vocal whistleblowers and tipsters is critical.” Earlier in the year, CFTC chair Rostin Behnam referenced the Whistleblower Office during a keynote address at a Futures Industry Association conference.

“With greater focus during this time of great global uncertainty on the opportunities that the digital asset infrastructure may afford bad actors, including sanctioned individuals and institutions, to bypass the law and remain anonymous, the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program becomes an increasingly important tool,” Benham said. “This too highlights the urgency for a more unified global approach to regulation in the digital asset space.”

The SEC recovered a record $6.9 billion in penalties during FY 2022 and its Whistleblower Office issued approximately $229 million in 103 awards, making it the SEC’s second-highest year in terms of dollar amounts and number of awards. The SEC Whistleblower Office also received a record number of whistleblower tips, more than 12,300, in FY 2022.

In its report, the SEC said: “In addition to vigorously safeguarding whistleblowers’ anonymity, the SEC protects them by pursuing individuals or entities who take steps to impede, or retaliate against them for, their whistleblowing. This was reflected in enforcement actions against the Brink’s Company, which the SEC charged and penalized for requiring certain employees to sign restrictive confidentiality agreements, and against the co-founder of a technology company, whom the SEC charged with impeding an employee from communicating with the SEC regarding potential misconduct.” 

Securities fraud whistleblowers need an attorney who understands the changes to the law made following the 2008 financial collapse.

The Dodd-Frank law added incentivized whistleblower programs similar to the qui tam provisions in the False Claims Act, creating powerful new tools for enforcing securities and commodities laws.

While elements of these new programs draw from the False Claims Act, Dodd-Frank whistleblower actions are different from False Claims Act lawsuits in important ways. 

If you believe someone has knowingly committed securities fraud and you would like to learn more about or would like to be a Dodd-Frank whistleblower, the securities whistleblower lawyers at Keller Grover can help you. The lawyers at Keller Grover understand whistleblower laws, including provisions to protect the whistleblower, and strive to achieve the best possible results for their clients.

Workers in California will gain rights and benefits when the new year starts January 1. Here’s what they should know about the changes taking effect in 2023.

You will learn more about what your job pays

We told you earlier this year about changes to the law that will empower California workers with more salary data in 2023.

SB 1162 requires California employers with 15 or more workers to provide a salary range on all job postings and requires companies with 100 or more employees in the state to annually report detailed salary information, such as median gender and racial pay gaps. Failure to make a report could result in a $100 fine per employee.

California’s Equal Pay Act prohibits employers from paying employees of differing sex, race or ethnicity less than others for performing “substantially similar work.” 

The governor’s office says California women lose $87 billion to the pay gap every year and a U.S. Census Bureau report says women earn 82.3 cents per every dollar earned by a man.

Your family and bereavement leave is changing

Your rights to family and bereavement leave are expanding under AB 1949 and AB 1041, which modify the California Family Rights Act and affect employers with five or more employees and any government workplace. 

AB 1041, which gives workers up to 12 weeks of family leave in a calendar year, extends the definition of a family member to include a “designated person,” which could mean an individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. AB 1949 expands bereavement leave to five days, which do not need to be taken in a row. 

Leave is not required to be paid, though employees can use accrued time off, like vacation or sick days.

You could be getting a raise

In July, the state’s department of finance announced the minimum wage will increase from $15 to $15.50 per hour for all employees. Under Labor Code section 1182.12(c), the state determines annually if the minimum wage should be adjusted for inflation. This year a 3.5% increase was determined.

You can’t be retaliated for leaving work in an emergency

SB 1044 protects workers from retaliation if they, in the event of an emergency, leave or refuse to report to work when they have a reasonable belief that the worksite is unsafe. 

The definition of an emergency condition in the bill excludes health pandemics, so COVID-19 levels or an employer’s coronavirus protocols can’t be used as a reason to stay home. Under the bill, emergency conditions are defined as:

• Conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons or property at the workplace or worksite caused by natural forces or a criminal act (this could include an active shooter).
• An order to evacuate a workplace, a worksite, a worker’s home, or the school of a worker’s child due to natural disaster or a criminal act.

You might not see changes to fast food workplaces

AB 257 would likely improve conditions for fast food workers in the state but may not take effect Jan. 1.

The bill establishes a 10-member Fast Food Council that would enact minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of fast food workers.

But the National Restaurant Association and International Franchise Association has formed a coalition called Protect Neighborhood Restaurants opposing the law, especially a section in the bill that could increase the fast food minimum wage to $22 an hour. 

If a referendum moves forward, the law could be delayed. Referendum supporters need about 623,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the 2024 ballot.

Keller Grover is here to help workers with their employment-related disputes. We can help you better understand your rights, protections and options. 

In more than 25 years litigating fraud and employment cases, we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients and class members. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.

 

The California Family Rights Act already provides most employees in the state with up to 12 workweeks of family care and medical leave in a year.

And now the law has been amended, allowing workers to take leave for care of a designated person in addition to family members. 

Here’s what California employees should know about the new law, Assembly Bill No. 1041, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Sept. 30.

What workplaces are covered?

Any government entity in the state, and businesses that employ five or more workers.

Who can I take leave for?

Under AB 1041, family care and medical leave can be taken:

• For the birth of a child or the placement of a child in connection with adoption or foster care.
• To care for a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, domestic partner, or designated person who has a serious health condition.
• For an employee’s own serious health condition that prevents them from performing their job functions, except for pregnancy or childbirth, or related medical conditions.

In addition, California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 generally allows employees to use paid sick days for diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee or an employee’s family member. AB 1041 expands the definition of the term “family member” to include a designated person. 

What’s a serious health condition?

According to the bill, it’s an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential health care facility, or continuing treatment or continuing supervision by a health care provider.

Also keep in mind that the California Family Rights Act provides for five days of bereavement leave, which do not need to be taken consecutively. This leave is unpaid, though employees would be allowed to use accrued paid sick or vacation days.

How are family members defined under the law?

• Child means a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, a child of a domestic partner, or a person to whom the employee stands in loco parentis.
• Parent means a biological, foster, or adoptive parent, a parent-in-law, a stepparent, a legal guardian, or other person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a child. Parent-in-laws include parents of a spouse or domestic partner.
• Sibling means a person related to another person by blood, adoption, or affinity through a common legal or biological parent.
• Designated person means any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The designated person may be identified by the employee at the time the employee requests the leave. An employer may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period for family care and medical leave.

Will I be paid on leave?

Not necessarily. The law says employers aren’t required to pay an employee for family care and medical leave unless it’s taken for the birth of a child or placement of a child to an employee by an adoption or foster care agency. And in that case, an employee may elect, or an employer may require, to substitute leave for accrued vacation time or time off, or any other paid or unpaid time off.

If an employee takes leave because of their own serious health condition, they may also elect, or the employer may require, to substitute accrued sick leave. However, an employee shall not use sick leave during a period of leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care of a child, or to care for a family member or designated person with a serious health condition unless mutually agreed.

Paid sick days can also be taken under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014.

Can I be terminated before I return from leave?

No. Under the law, leave is not granted unless employers provide the employee a guarantee of employment in the same or a comparable position upon the termination of the leave.

Also, employers must maintain and pay for coverage under a group health plan and employees can continue to participate in employee health and benefit plans while on leave. Employees on leave must return with no less seniority then they had when the leave started.

Keller Grover represents workers in employment-related disputes and we can help you better understand your rights, protections and options. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.

Do you know if your job is paying you fairly?

If you work in California, big changes to the law next year will empower you with more salary data to answer that question.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recently signed a bill that requires California employers with 15 or more workers to provide a salary range on all job postings – and share that information with current employees. Other states, including Colorado, Nevada, Connecticut, and Washington, have passed similar legislation.

But California’s law also requires companies with 100 or more employees in the state to annually report detailed salary information, such as median gender and racial pay gaps. The state is home to many major corporations, such as Google, Meta, Apple and Oracle.

One expert told The Washington Post that the law is “the strongest legislative effort for pay transparency in the U.S. to date.”

“For employees, this legislation takes a good part of the guessing game out of pay negotiations and levels the playing field in such negotiations,” Peter Bamberger, a scholar with the Academy of Management and a professor in the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University, told The Post.

California’s Equal Pay Act already prohibits employers from paying employees of differing sex, race or ethnicity less than others for performing “substantially similar work.” 

And with more data coming online next year, employees may find it easier to prove their bosses are violating the law.

According to the Society of Human Resource Management, the annual detailed pay report for companies with 100-plus employees must include the number of employees by race, ethnicity and sex whose annual earnings fall within each of the pay bands used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Employment Statistics survey. Failure to make a report could result in a $100 fine per employee.

In a statistic touted by the governor’s office, California women lose $87 billion to the pay gap every year according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. A U.S. Census Bureau report says women earn 82.3 cents per every dollar earned by a man.

In California, Asian and white people were more likely to be at the highest end of the pay scale, while Hispanic and Latino people and Black people were overly represented at the lowest pay levels, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reported on 2020 data collected on 6.3 million workers by the state.

Keller Grover is here to help workers with their employment-related disputes. If your employer isn’t paying you fairly, we can help you better understand your rights, protections and options. In more than 25 years litigating fraud and employment cases, we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients and class members. 

Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.

 

 

Most of the time, anything your employer requires you to do also should come with compensation, according to California law. We’re here to help if that doesn’t happen.

But there are some nuances when it comes to requirements that are tied to a job offer. This summer, an appeals court in California provided some guidelines about how that plays out practically.

Alfred Johnson filed a class-action lawsuit against supermarket chain WinCo Foods. Successful WinCo job applicants were expected to take a drug test as a final condition of employment, and Johnson thought that he and others deserved to be compensated for the time and travel expense of doing so. 

WinCo controlled and required the tests, Johnson argued, so the successful applicants should be regarded as employees. As a general rule, when your employer is dictating how you use your time, you are on the clock.

But the district court disagreed with Johnson, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed that ruling. The drug test was part of the job application process — not performance of the job — and the applicants were not yet employees. According to the court, the applicants didn’t become employees until they passed the drug test, as well as a background check. The job offer hinged on the results, and applicants were informed up front. While WinCo paid for the testing itself, it did not pay for related travel expenses or time.

“WinCo went to great lengths when the verbal offer was made to communicate that its job offer was conditional,” according to the ruling.

However, it’s important to note that if you have already been hired, and your employer requires regular drug testing as a condition of continued employment, you should be compensated for that time. 

So pay attention to what a prospective employer tells you during the hiring process. Make sure you have a clear understanding of expectations, particularly involving time, pay, and conditions of employment.

Keller Grover is here to help workers with their employment-related disputes. If your employer isn’t treating you fairly, we can help you better understand your rights, protections and options. In more than 25 years litigating fraud and employment cases, we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients and class members. 

Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.