Protection for Employee Whistleblowers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Missouri's Public Policy Exception: What Happens If the Employee Never Whistled

Authors

Jeff Le Riche

Abstract

The Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") was implemented by Congress in 1938 in an attempt to assure most workers of an adequate minimum wage and payment for overtime work. FLSA § 15(a)(3) was enacted to protect employees from retaliatory discharges based upon the reporting of violations of the substantive FLSA provisions In Saffels v. Rice, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit extended protection to employees who were dismissed based on the employer's mistaken belief the employee reported violations of the law to the authorities based on both FLSA § 15(a)(3) and Missouri's commonlaw public policy exception to the at-will employment doctrine. The court, by extending protection to employees who have taken no protected action, removed analysis under FLSA § 15(a)(3) from the plain language of the statute.'

Recommended Citation

Jeff Le Riche, Protection for Employee Whistleblowers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Missouri's Public Policy Exception: What Happens If the Employee Never Whistled , 60 Mo. L. Rev. (1995)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol60/iss4/7