A whistleblower has filed a lawsuit against Mecklenburg County, alleging she was fired after speaking out about years’ worth of patient records and other critical medical documents that were piled up in an office at the county’s health department.
The lawsuit comes after a 2017 scandal in which the health department failed to notify 185 women that they had abnormalities in their Pap smears. The whistleblower complaint indicates the problems may have been occurring for years.
The whistleblower, Natalie Nicholson, claims that in 2013, she reported her coworker was not submitting critical information to state agencies. She says this resulted in the county being forced to return $250,000 to a state-governing body, and that she suffered from significant retaliation as a result.
She began receiving negative annual reviews, was reassigned in the county, was isolated from the staff and given an unfair amount of work. She had to use a kitchen table as a desk in an offsite location and was given no office supplies or printer. She is asking for more than $25,000 and a jury trial in the lawsuit.
Speak up when experiencing retaliation
Under federal and state laws, there are more protections afforded to whistleblowers than ever before, which shield them from retaliation if they speak out about wrongdoing in their workplace. If you have been the victim of retaliation, you have the right to hold your employer liable for its actions.
To learn more about your legal options if you have been a victim of whistleblower retaliation, work with a trusted Dallas attorney at Whistleblower Law for Managers
