Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Re: Penalties for Fraud

To answer your direct question, what penalties will apply to the supervisor will depend on what disciplinary policies the University in question has in place.

I'll also answer what I believe to be your real question, which is, "what sort of consequences does the supervisor face, and what recourse does the employee have?"

What the supervisor has done is not fraud, but defamation. In addition, if the employee can show that the supervisor did this intending to discriminate on the basis of gender, race or national origin (there are other illegal reasons, too, but these are the ones that would most likely apply in this employee's case), then the employee can also bring a case for employment discrimination. The employee can recover lost income, lost benefits, lost Social Security contribution, possibly attorney's fees, and depending on the circumstances of the case, possibly other damages as well. The employee may also win reinstatement.

The fact that the employee worked for a University (I am assuming a public and not a private school) should not diminish the employee's rights. The employee may have additional rights but may have to exhaust the school's procedure to enforce those rights.

The employee may want to sit down with an attorney to discuss the details of the case (answers are necessarily general here because case details are necessarily limited) before proceeding. An attorney can give guidance as to whether the employee must first follow the school's grievance procedures, and then discuss the pros and cons of other options, which include filing a complaint through the Washington Human Rights Commission (free but not always particularly thorough) or pursue a private action (more thorough but possibly expensive.)

Good luck to the employee!