Court Opinion

ID: 9782140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 18:01:46.772879+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:49.125392
License: Public Domain

COLBERT, J.,
dissenting,
with whom EDMONDSON, C.J. and WATT, J., join.
¶ 1 Today this Court answers a federal certified question without mention or application of a recent controlling decision. The reason for this glaring omission is unclear, but application of precedent requires an answer opposite to today’s holding. I must dissent and explain how today’s answer would be different if precedent had been applied.
¶ 2 A federal court has certified a question of law that is almost identical to the issue addressed by this Court’s recent pronouncement in Vasek v. Board of County Commissioners, 2008 OK 35, 186 P.3d 928. There, a deputy court clerk was alleged to have been fired for reporting possible violations of the Oklahoma Occupational Health and Safety Standards Act (OOHSSA), Okla. Stat. tit. 40, §§ 401-435 (2001 & Supp.2008). The employee’s report to the Oklahoma Department of Labor concerned possible violations of the Act arising from mold in the courthouse in Noble County. The mold was caused by inmates of the jail who overflowed their toilets onto offices located below. Vasek applied a whistleblower provision contained in OOHSSA which provided: “No person shall discharge, discriminate or take adverse personnel action against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint, or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this act.” Id. at § 403(B); Vasek, 2008 OK 35, ¶ 24, 186 P.3d at 933. This Court noted that “[i]t is difficult to imagine a statement of public policy more specific or more applicable to the conduct Plaintiff alleged.” Vasek, 2008 OK 35, ¶ 25, 186 P.3d at 933. However, the statement of public policy in this matter may be even more so.
¶ 3 The Protection of Labor Act contains a whistleblower provision which criminalizes the discharge of an employee for making contact with the Department of Labor in order to initiate an investigation or complaint, or otherwise exercise the rights provided by the Act. Section 199 provides:
A. It shall be a misdemeanor for any employer, as defined in Section 165.1 of this title, or his agent to discharge, penalize or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because:
1. The employee has filed a complaint with his employer, or the Commissioner of Labor or his authorized representative, to enforce any provision of Sections 71 through 198.2 of this title;
2. The employee has caused to be instituted a proceeding or investigation related to an alleged violation of any provision of Sections 71 through 198.2 of this title; or
3. The employee has testified or is about to testify in an investigation or proceeding under this title.
B. Every employer, as defined in Section 165.1 of this title, or his agent shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if:
1. The filing of a complaint with the employer, Commissioner of Labor or his authorized representative, or the taking of any action directly related to the com*915plaint by any employee is a substantial and material factor in the discharge, penalization of or any other discrimination against the employee by the employer or his agent; or
2. The employer or his agent has acted in a manner which has the effect of discouraging, restraining, coercing or interfering with any employee in the exercise of the employee’s rights contained in Sections 71 through 198.2 of this title.
C. Every person convicted of violating a prohibition of this section shall be fined not less than Fifty Dollars ($50.00) nor more than Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) or imprisoned in the county jail for not less than five (5) days nor more than thirty (30) days, or both.
Okla. Stat. tit. 40, § 199 (Supp.2005). For purposes of section 199, “[ejmployer means every individual, partnership, firm, association, corporation, the legal representative of a deceased individual, or the receiver, trustee or successor of an individual, firm, partnership, association or corporation, employing any person in this state.” Id. at § 165.1.
¶ 4 With such a clear articulation of public policy before it, how can this Court hold that an employee termination that violates section 199, a misdemeanor, is an insufficient basis for a wrongful termination claim? The rationale behind such a holding in the face of so clear an articulation of public policy escapes me, as does the reason for omitting application of a whistleblower case which is directly on point. Vasek, and the decisions on which it relied, must be applied to properly answer the federal question and to avoid confusion in this Court’s wrongful termination jurisprudence. In doing so, the focus of analysis will remain properly on application of the test for wrongful termination rather than on whether the discharged employee had a valid regulatory claim against his employer.
¶ 5 Vasek clearly stated the elements of a wrongful termination claim. Such a claim must allege:
(1) an actual or constructive discharge (2) of an at-will employee (3) in significant part for a reason that violates an Oklahoma public policy goal (4) that is found in Oklahoma’s constitutional, statutory, or de-cisional law or in a federal constitutional provision that prescribes a norm of conduct for Oklahoma and (5) no statutory remedy exists that is adequate to protect the Oklahoma policy goal.
2008 OK 35, ¶ 14, 186 P.3d at 932. See also Darrow v. Integris Health, Inc., 2008 OK 1, ¶¶ 9-19, 176 P.3d 1204, 1210-16; McCrady v. Okla. Dept. of Pub. Safety, 2005 OK 67, ¶ 9, 122 P.3d 473, 475.
¶ 6 The narrow issue raised by this matter is whether an Oklahoma statute prescribes a norm of conduct for Oklahoma. Certainly section 199 does so. That prescribed norm states that it is not permissible to take adverse action against an employee for pursuing a right provided by the Protection of Labor Act and other enumerated provisions of title 40. Although the federal court inquired as to the “sufficiency” of the public policy goal, sufficiency of the prescribed norm of conduct is not an element of a wrongful termination claim, nor has it been a proper subject of inquiry under this Court’s wrongful termination jurisprudence, at least not until today. Focused on the proper test, the analysis examines whether a policy goal which prescribes a norm of conduct has been identified.
¶ 7 According to the majority opinion, Plaintiff alleges he was fired “for contacting the Oklahoma Department of Labor with an inquiry about his employer’s lunch-break policy.” The question asked is whether, within certain statutes enumerated by the federal court, there is an Oklahoma norm of conduct which states that it is not permissible to discharge an employee for making contact with the Department of Labor concerning the calculation of his hours and wages. Again, section 199 is aimed precisely at protection of such conduct by an employee. This Court’s analysis strayed when it focused on whether Plaintiff had a viable wage claim under section 165.2 of title 40 which addresses the payment of “wages.” That was not the question asked by the federal court and it is irrelevant to his wrongful termination claim. The question of whether Plaintiff had a viable wage claim is irrelevant to this matter, just as the issue of the actual existence of harmful mold in the courthouse was irrelevant in Vasek. An employee is not required to correctly assess the likelihood that the employer is actually violating a statute before making an inquiry of a regulatory agen*916cy charged with the employee’s protection. The question is simply whether there is an established norm of conduct which prevents an employee’s discharge without consequences for making contact with a regulatory agency. Although a prescribed norm of conduct against discharging a worker for contact with the Department of Labor was present in both this matter and in Vasek, this Court has chosen to give effect to that norm of conduct only in Vasek
¶ 8 Today’s decision ignores precedent. It brings uncertainty and confusion to wrongful termination actions brought by whistleblow-ers. It tells employees in Oklahoma they must not inquire concerning, much less report, any suspicions they have about the legality of their employer’s conduct to a regulatory agency. If they do, they risk discharge with no redress, even in the presence of a statute criminalizing such a discharge by their employer.
¶ 9 The astounding contradiction in the treatment of the terminated plaintiff in Va-sek and Plaintiff in this matter will not go unnoticed. Whatever benefit this Court finds in its disparate treatment of the similarly situated plaintiffs will be outweighed by the needless confusion today’s opinion creates and the fundamental unfairness it propagates.