Retaliation and Whistleblowers

As our New Jersey whistleblower lawyers can explain to you, numerous state and federal laws make it illegal for your employer to retaliate against you by firing you, demoting you, passing you up for a promotion, harassing you, or taking another adverse employment action against you because you engaged in a legally-protected activity. 

For example, New Jersey has one of the country’s broadest whistleblower laws, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act ("CEPA").

In addition, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination ("LAD") protects employees who complain about illegal discrimination or harassment in the workplace.

Similarly, other state and federal laws such as the Family & Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), the New Jersey Family Leave Act ("NJFLA"), the Occupational Health & Safety Act ("OSHA"), and wage and hour laws including the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and the New Jersey Wage & Hour Law ("NJWHL"), among many other employment laws prohibit retaliation against whistleblowers.

In addition, New Jersey law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees because they took time off from work for jury duty. Further, the First Amendment offers protection to state and local government employees who speak out about issues of public concern.

Among other things, CEPA makes it illegal for your employer to retaliate against you if you object to or refuse to participate in something you reasonably believe is illegal, criminal, fraudulent, or violates a clear public policy requirement that relates to public health, safety, welfare or the environment. In addition, if you are a licensed or certified health care professional, CEPA also applies if you objected to or refused to participate in an activity you reasonably believed constitutes improper quality of patient care.

For more information about CEPA, please read our Frequently Asked Questions about the Conscientious Employee Protection Act. 

New Jersey law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who seek workers’ compensation benefits, or who file worker's compensation claims. Worker's compensation retaliation can occur because an employer is upset that your claim could increase its insurance rates or require it to complete extra paperwork, because it brings to light a dangerous condition in the workplace, or for a variety of other reasons.

Worker's compensation retaliation claims are often (but not always) associated with disability discrimination claims. In fact, sometimes it can be difficult to tell if you have been treated less favorably because you filed a worker's compensation claim, because you have an injury that requires you to take time off from work or temporarily limits your ability to perform your job, or both.

A wide variety of retaliatory conduct can violate your employment law rights if it is based on the fact that you engaged in a legally-protected activity. In other words, retaliation can come in many forms.

Sometimes employers harass employees who raise legally protected complaints, trying to punish them or to convince them to stop pressing those complaints. Other employers fire, discipline, demote, pass over for promotion or take another adverse employment action against employees who object to violations of the law. All of these forms of retaliation can be illegal.

The False Claims Act provides protection to individuals who engage in whistleblowing by reporting particular violations of law that harm the state or federal government. Individuals who file successful cases under the False Claims Act are eligible to receive a percentage of the money the government recovers.

If you have experienced retaliation at your job, or would like more information about your New Jersey employment law rights, Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C. can help.  

To schedule a consultation to discuss your case with one of our New Jersey whistleblower attorneys, please either call us at (201) 777-2250 or contact us online. We represent clients throughout the state from our office at 135 Chestnut Ridge Road, Suite 230, in Montvale, New Jersey.