Bethards v. State Department of Workforce Development

f 1.

HRUZ, J.

The issue presented in this Wis. Stat. ch. 227 (2013-14)1 review is whether the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's Equal Rights Division ("ERD") erred when it concluded a former state employee failed to comply with the Whistleblower Protection Law, Wis. Stat. §§ 230.80-*354230.89. Specifically, the employee challenges as unreasonable the ERD's interpretation of the term "supervisor" in § 230.81(1) as including only those individuals within an employee's supervisory chain of command. He also argues his agency's human resources director was one of his "supervisors," or…