New Hampshire Whistleblower Protection Law

February 29th, 2004 Posted by Lindsay

Since 1988, New Hampshire has had a law in effect protecting whistleblowers. A whistleblower is someone, usually an employee, who tells authorities about an employer who they believe is committing an illegal act. Because the protection of whistleblowers is an integral part of labor laws, I thought it was a good idea to go over it here. There have been recent changes made to the Whistleblower Protection Law that I feel everyone should be aware of.

Under this law, the employee cannot be discharged, denoted, suspended, threatened or harassed in any way because of turning in the information on the employer. Both public and private employees are protected in this state. Examples of violations include hazardous waste violations, elder care violations, dog and horse racing facility violations, toxic substance control violations, and child care facility violations, as well as many others. 

New Hampshire law does not specify a statute of limitations. The complaint process is the part of the whistleblower protection law that has changed in 1999 and again in 2000, along with wording that hopefully will clarify the law for all. Generally, the process now is that when the employee files a complaint, it must be presented in writing along with all substantiating evidence. The employer is then notified in writing within 10 days. The employer may not respond, n which case the claimant shall be notified of his or her right to a hearing.

If the results of the investigation show that the employer didn’t actually break the law, the employee is still entitled to whistle blower protection from retaliation. However, the whistleblower protection law does not cover employer retaliation for complaints about personal hate . In other words, office politics is not allowed to be used as a basis for filing a complaint against the employer. 

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