Former employee brought action against village, alleging violations of the whistleblower statute and wrongful termination in violation of public policy due to complaints of criminal conduct which violated environmental protection laws. The Common Pleas Court entered summary judgment for village, and employee appealed. The Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. Village sought review.
The Supreme Court of Ohio held that former employee failed to strictly comply with whistleblower statute as required for him to state a claim for wrongful termination.
Although employee submitted a supervisor’s report which identified equipment failures that resulted from discharge by village’s largest employer, an automotive-parts manufacturer, the report did not qualify as a report that sufficiently identified and described any crimes involving the village, as the statute required. The report did not reveal that village was knowingly placing glycol into the water supply, and report was written too late, as it was filed after years of discussing the equipment failures with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials.