A new Iowa rule protects employees from retaliation when employees make a work safety complaint to the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Additionally, if an employee, with no reasonable alternative, refuses in good faith to be exposed to a dangerous condition, the employee is protected against subsequent discrimination if the following conditions are met:
- The condition causing the employee’s apprehension of death or injury must be of such a nature that a reasonable person, under the circumstances then confronting the employee, would conclude that there is a real danger of death or serious injury.
- The employee, where possible, first sought to:
- Eliminate the danger through resorting to regular statutory enforcement channels unless there has been insufficient time due to the urgency of the situation, or
- Obtain from the employer a correction of the dangerous condition but was unable to do so.
These protections are effective on January 15, 2025.