Court Opinion

ID: 9546731
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:34:45.124938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:49.043912
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
I am in agreement with the opinions of Justices Broussard and Kaufman with one significant exception: I am unwilling to accept their concurrence in part I of the majority opinion.
When an employee learns that one in a supervisorial position is an embezzler, he has the choice of two immediate courses of action. He can remain silent and thus avoid the enmity of the embezzler and embarrassment to the employer. That apparently is the approach preferred by my colleagues in order to assure the employee’s retention of his job. Or, as a dutiful employee concerned with the image of his company, he can report *724his knowledge to the employer. That is the course of action I would encourage.
My colleagues insist that reporting the presence of an embezzler to an employer is solely to the benefit of the employer. While undoubtedly it is to the employer’s benefit, it is not exclusively so. It is my opinion that such action—i.e., advising a state-created corporation of the employ in a supervisorial position of a person chargeable with a potential felony—is in the best interests of society as a whole, and therefore covered by the public policy rule.
Under Labor Code section 1102.5, subdivision (b), an employer is prohibited from retaliating against an employee for disclosing information to a law enforcement agency when there is reasonable cause to believe a violation of state or federal laws has been committed. It seems incongruous to permit retaliation and discharge when the employee chooses to go directly to his employer with the information, rather than to circumvent the employer, go behind his back and directly to a public agency. In either event, it seems clear to me that the law and public policy are implicated.
With that one exception, I agree with the persuasive opinions of Justices Broussard and Kaufman.