Opinion ID: 2450542
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The public policy embedded in the KWPA

Text: The parties dispute what authority may be considered when determining whether a strongly held public policy exists in this state. Husky Hogs argues the legislature must expressly declare a public policy against retaliatory job actions for filing a wage claim under the KWPA before Kansas courts may recognize a common-law tort of retaliatory discharge as an exception to at-will employment. But Campbell argues the test is not so strict and that public policy has been implied from statutory schemes. Campbell's argument is consistent with Kansas case law. We have stated that courts tasked with determining whether a public policy exists are faced with three situations: (1) The legislature has clearly declared the state's public policy; (2) the legislature enacted statutory provisions from which public policy may reasonably be implied, even though it is not directly declared; and (3) the legislature has neither made a clear statement of public policy nor can it be reasonably implied. Coleman, 242 Kan. at 808, 752 P.2d 645. We also have held that public policy must be clearly declared by the constitution, statutory enactments, or the courts, and it must be `so united and so definite and fixed that its existence is not subject to any substantial doubt.' Hysten, 277 Kan. at 555, 108 P.3d 437 (citing Riddle v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 27 Kan.App.2d 79, 998 P.2d 114 [2000]). We also have acknowledged that while public policy may be determined by both the legislature and the courts, courts must respect legislative expressions when ascertaining whether a public policy exists. Coleman, 242 Kan. at 808, 752 P.2d 645. As to this question, both parties refer us to the Kansas federal court decision in Kistler v. Life Care Centers of America, Inc., 620 F.Supp. 1268 (D.Kan.1985), which suggested there was an express policy declaration governing a wage-related claim. In Kistler, the plaintiff alleged retaliatory discharge in federal district court, contending she was fired for testifying against her employer at an unemployment compensation hearing. Such hearings are provided for under K.S.A. 44-701 et seq. In determining Kansas public policy prevented a termination under those circumstances, the court held the legislature had strongly expressed a policy against allowing employers to interfere with unemployment compensation hearings by enacting K.S.A. 44-615. 620 F.Supp. at 1269. But the relevant portion of K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 44-615 states: It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to discharge any employee or to discriminate in any way against any employee because . . . such employee may testify as a witness before the secretary of labor, or shall sign any complaint or shall be in any way instrumental in bringing to the attention of the secretary of labor any matter of controversy between employers and employees as provided herein.  (Emphasis added.) It is not immediately clear from the statute what provisions of the labor code are subject to the as provided herein language. And since K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 44-615 appears in Article 6 of Chapter 44, one interpretation could be that it applies only to Article 6 claims. The Kistler court did not address this ambiguity about the statute's scope but simply assumed K.S.A. 44-615 applied to unemployment compensation hearings, which arise from Article 7. The court then held that K.S.A. 44-615 was an express declaration of public policy, so the plaintiff stated a valid retaliatory discharge claim. 620 F.Supp. at 1269-70. As a secondary holding, the Kistler court also noted that in workers compensation cases Kansas courts had stressed that a retaliatory discharge claim was necessary to preserve the purposes of the Workers Compensation Act. Applying this same rationale to the facts, the Kistler court held the same was true in the unemployment compensation case before it. 620 F.Supp. at 1270. We must decide whether Kistler 's extension of K.S.A. 44-615 to an Article 7 unemployment compensation claim as an express legislative statement of public policy against job retaliation was correct. If so, then there is a strong argument Campbell's Article 4 claim seeking his unpaid wage is supported by an express legislative statement of public policy against retaliatory misconduct by employers. The question is whether as provided herein only refers to the Article 6 provisions or applies more broadly to other articles within Chapter 44. Answering this inquiry requires statutory interpretation, which is subject to unlimited review. Weber v. Board of Marshall County Comm'rs, 289 Kan. 1166, 1175, 221 P.3d 1094 (2009). To interpret this statute, we first examine its plain language to ascertain legislative intent. If the language is not plain and unambiguous, we employ statutory construction or consult legislative history. In re Tax Exemption Application of Mental Health Ass'n of the Heartland, 289 Kan. 1209, 1211, 221 P.3d 580 (2009). But the statute's language provides no clarity to our inquiry, so we consider the statute's history. K.S.A. 44-615 was enacted in 1920, L. 1920, ch. 29, sec. 15, along with several other provisions creating a Court of Industrial Relations and conferring certain rights and duties upon it. L. 1920, ch. 29, secs. 1-30. Its duties were later transferred to the Secretary of Human Resources (now Secretary of Labor), when subsequent amendments to K.S.A. 44-615 simply changed the governing body from that court to the Secretary. Compare L. 1920, ch. 29, sec. 15 with L. 1976, ch. 370, sec. 33; L. 2004, ch. 179, sec. 32. In other words, as provided herein was originally drafted to apply only to the other provisions adopted in the same bill from 1920. A comparison of the 1920 enactments to Article 6, L. 1920, ch. 29, secs. 3-28, shows they originally included what is now K.S.A. 44-603 through K.S.A. 44-628. Notably, neither the unemployment compensation provisions at issue in Kistler, nor the KWPA at issue in Campbell's case, were part of these 1920 statutory enactments. Given this history, and with nothing else to guide the analysis, we hold that K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 44-615 does not apply to any provision under any section in Chapter 44, except Article 6. See Redd v. Kansas Truck Center, 291 Kan. 176, 195, 239 P.3d 66 (2010) (Appellate courts must consider various provisions of an act in pari materia to reconcile and bring the provisions into workable harmony if possible.). We find Kistler 's reliance on K.S.A. 44-615 misplaced in deciding that the legislature made an express statement against job retaliation in the context of an unemployment compensation hearing. But the Kistler court's recognition of a retaliatory discharge claim under Article 7 may still be correct under its secondary holding that public policy may be inferred from the statutory right. We address next whether Campbell's retaliatory discharge claim may be implied from the KWPA's statutory scheme. See Hysten, 277 Kan. at 556, 108 P.3d 437 (We are attempting to discern the breadth and depth underlying public policy.). The KWPA was enacted in 1973. L. 1973, ch. 204, secs. 1-16. It is an expansive and comprehensive legislative scheme that is broad in its scope and the rights created for Kansas workers to secure unpaid wages earned from their labors. See K.S.A. 44-313 et seq. It is applicable to most Kansas employers. See K.S.A. 44-313(a). It requires, among various other provisions, that employers promptly pay wages and benefits (K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 44-314; K.S.A. 44-315). It also permits specific damages awards for willful nonpayment (K.S.A.44-315); controls and limits wage withholdings (K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 44-319); prohibits waivers of the rights created (K.S.A.44-321); and mandates that the Secretary of Labor enforce and administer the KWPA's provisions through administrative proceedings, compulsory process to compel witness attendance and document production, and permits application to the district courts for citations in contempt (see K.S.A. 44-322; K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 44-322a). The Secretary of Labor is expressly authorized to adopt such rules and regulations as are deemed necessary to accomplish the KWPA's purposes. K.S.A. 44-325. In Burriss v. Northern Assurance Co. of America, 236 Kan. 326, 333, 691 P.2d 10 (1984), cert. denied 474 U.S. 821, 106 S.Ct. 72, 88 L.Ed.2d 58 (1985), this court commented on the safeguards Kansas law has extended to wages and benefits earned by its workers, noting: Throughout the history of this state, the protection of wages and wage earners has been a principal objective of many of our laws. See, for example, K.S.A. 60-2307, originally enacted as G.S. 1868, ch. 38, § 6, providing that otherwise exempt personal property shall not be exempt from attachment or execution for wages; K.S.A. 44-312, enacted in 1901, giving preference to the payment of wages in the case of receiverships or assignments for the benefit of creditors; the statute restricting garnishment of wages, K.S.A. 60-2310, which reflects the rationale of G.S. 1868, ch. 80, § 490; and the wage payment act, K.S.A. 44-313 et seq., enacted in 1973. K.S.A. 40-3103, like the statutes mentioned above, gives preference to wage earners, in order that they and the families dependent upon them are not destitute. This language was repeated recently in Coma Corporation v. Kansas Dept. of Labor, 283 Kan. 625, 644, 154 P.3d 1080 (2007), in recognition of what the Coma court characterized as the strong and longtime Kansas public policy of protecting wages and wage earners. In Coma, we held that denying an undocumented worker access to KWPA's statutory mechanisms for enforcing an employment contract would directly contravene the public policy of the State of Kansas. 283 Kan. at 645, 154 P.3d 1080. This court has recognized retaliatory discharge claims in different circumstances, including those in which employees are discharged for exercising a statutory right. Hysten, 277 Kan. at 561, 108 P.3d 437 (FELA); Anco Constr. Co., 236 Kan. at 629, 693 P.2d 1183 (workers compensation). Campbell's petition, which alleges an adverse job action against him for pursuing his statutory right to payment of earned but unpaid wages, clearly fits within this type. And it is meaningful that this statutory right relates to employment because it dovetails with much of our prior case law. For example in Hysten, which concerned the railroad employee terminated after filing a FELA claim for a work-related injury, this court held: The design and language of the Kansas Workers Compensation Act and the logic of Murphy, 6 Kan.App.2d 488, 630 P.2d 186, persuade us that Kansas has a `thoroughly established' public policy supporting injured workers' rights to pursue remedies for their on-the-job injuries and opposing retaliation against them for exercising their rights. It matters not that the vehicle for that exercise is a federal rather than a state statutory provision. 277 Kan. at 561, 108 P.3d 437. That principle is applicable to the KWPA. We hold the KWPA embeds within its provisions a public policy of protecting wage earners' rights to their unpaid wages and benefits. And just as we found a common-law retaliatory discharge claim when an injured worker is terminated for exercising rights under the Workers Compensation Act, we find such a cause of action is necessary when an employer fires a worker who seeks to exercise KWPA rights by filing a wage claim. To do otherwise would seriously undermine the public policy and the protections afforded by the KWPA. Cf. Hysten, 277 Kan. at 556-57, 108 P.3d 437.