Emotional Distress

How to turn a problem employee into a productive, valuable worker.

A federal appeals court ruled that an employer, Stewart Enterprises, did not retaliate against three employees when it laid them off during a reduction in force. The employees filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of labor arguing that they were let go because they complained about faulty accounting and computer procedures and that the terminations were a violation of the whistleblower provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley. The court found that while the relevant procedures were not stellar business practices, they were not illegal and, therefore, not covered by Sarbanes-Oxley.