California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Cardenas v. M. Fanaian, D.D.S., Inc., 194 Cal.Rptr.3d 1, 240 Cal.App.4th 1167 (Cal. App. 2015):
government agency that other employees or his employer are violating the law [citations]. (Gonzalez v. Superior Court(1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 1539, 1545, fn. 4, 39 Cal.Rptr.2d 896.) Neither lawyers nor laypersons understand the term whistleblower to refer to a person who reports any violation of law regardless of how, under what circumstances, or by whom committed, and without consideration of whether the illegal activity impacts anyone besides the person reporting it. If that were the case, all reports of unlawful activity made to police would be considered whistleblowing, which is an absurd proposition. Former section 1102.5does not actually use the term whistleblower, but its uncodified preamble provides clear guidance as to the type of reporting that is and is not protected by the statute. I do not believe the statute can reasonably be interpreted as extending protection to matters of a purely private and personal interest that have no meaningful relationship to the employer's business activities and are uniquely important to the employee who has reported a suspected violation of law.
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