Do I Have A Claim For Wrongful Termination Against My Employer In New Jersey?

This article addresses these issues:

• Under federal law, do you, an executive or a professional, have a claim for discriminatory discharge against your employer in New Jersey?
• Under state law, do you possess a cause of action for discriminatory discharge against your company in New Jersey?
• Under state law, do you have a claim for retaliatory discharge against your employer in New Jersey?

Wrongful termination of employment is not, in itself, a cognizable claim in the State of New Jersey. New Jersey is an at-will employment state. This means that employment law in New Jersey is not always fair, and it does not always conform to popular notions of right and wrong.

In New Jersey, unless you have a contract of employment that provides otherwise, or unless you are a member of a labor union, you can be terminated – that is, fired — for any reason or no reason, good reason or bad reason, as long as it’s not a reason that’s prohibited by statute or public policy.

Most reasons for termination that are prohibited by statute or public policy fall into the categories of discrimination or retaliation. That is, either the termination is discrimination against you because of your membership in a protected class, or the firing is retaliation against you for engaging in legally protected actions. Employees who are fired for taking part in protected conduct are often termed “whistleblowers.”

Laws against discrimination and retaliation in employment consist of federal laws (that is, laws that govern the whole country), New Jersey laws, and local laws.

Federal law supplies a floor of protection against discriminatory or retaliatory discharge from employment. However, states can, and often do, go beyond the federal minimum. In other words, states can provide, to workers, a larger amount of protection against arbitrary firings than the federal government does.

New Jersey is generally a pro-employee state. New Jersey shields employees against discriminatory and retaliatory firings to a greater degree than the federal government does.

The most wide-ranging federal anti-discrimination law is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended (“Title VII”). Title VII prohibits private employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating in compensation or in the terms, conditions, and privileges of employment on the basis of certain protected categories. These categories are race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, and transgender status.

At the state level, the most robust anti-discrimination statute is the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (the “NJLAD”). The NJLAD forbids all public and private employers, because of the race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, affectional or sexual orientation, genetic information, pregnancy or breastfeeding, sex, gender identity or expression, disability or atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait of any individual, or because of the liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States or the nationality of any individual, or because of the refusal to submit to a genetic test or make available the results of a genetic test to an employer, to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or to discharge or require to retire, unless justified by lawful considerations other than age, from employment such individual or to discriminate against such individual in compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

At the state level, the most important anti-retaliation statute is the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“NJ CEPA”). NJ CEPA prohibits all employers from retaliating against an employee because the employee does any of the following:

• Discloses, or threatens to disclose to a supervisor or to a public body an activity, policy or practice of the employer, or of another employer, with whom there is a business relationship, that the employee reasonably believes (1) is in violation of a law, or a rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to law, or (2) is fraudulent or criminal;
• Provides information to, or testifies before, any public body conducting an investigation, hearing or inquiry into any violation of law, or a rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to law by the employer, or another employer with whom there is a business relationship;
  or
• Objects to, or refuses to participate in any activity, policy or practice which the employee reasonably believes (1) is in violation of a law, or a rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to law, (2) is fraudulent or criminal, or (3) is incompatible with a clear mandate of public policy concerning the public health, safety or welfare or protection of the environment.

With respect to employees who are licensed or certified healthcare professionals, NJ CEPA further prohibits all employers from retaliating against an employee because the employee does any of the following:

• Discloses, or threatens to disclose to a supervisor or to a public body an activity, policy or practice of the employer, or of another employer, with whom there is a business relationship, that the employee reasonably believes constitutes improper quality of patient care;
• Provides information to, or testifies before, any public body conducting an investigation, hearing or inquiry into the quality of patient care; or
• Objects to, or refuses to participate in any activity, policy or practice which the employee reasonably believes constitutes improper quality of patient care.

In addition to NJ CEPA, New Jersey common law (that is, judge-made law) includes a public policy exception to at-will employment. Because this public policy exception was created by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Pierce v. Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation, an employee’s claim, under New Jersey common law, that he or she was fired in violation of public policy is called a Pierce claim.

In the Pierce decision, New Jersey’s highest court held that

[A]n employee has a cause of action [in tort or contract or both] for wrongful discharge when the discharge is contrary to a clear mandate of public policy. The sources of public policy include legislation, administrative rules, regulations or decisions; and judicial decisions. In certain instances, a professional code of ethics may contain an expression of public policy. However not all such sources express a clear mandate of public policy.

Not only is it unlawful to fire an employee for a discriminatory reason, it is unlawful to fire an employee for a retaliatory reason. Objecting to or opposing discrimination or harassment based on any protected characteristic is protected conduct.

For example, not only can a company not terminate a worker because he is Hispanic, the company can’t terminate the worker because he or she objects to or opposes being discriminated against at work because he or she is Hispanic.

It is unlawful for the company to retaliate against the worker by firing him or her for such protests, even if the worker’s complaints turn out to be unsupported. To be protected conduct, the employee’s complaints need only be reasonable and in good faith.

If you are an executive or a professional in the New York City metro area or in New Jersey and you believe you have been wrongfully terminated, call New Jersey Wrongful Termination Lawyer David S. Rich at New York: (347) 472-1026 | New Jersey: (201) 581-7641 today.

Our firm’s labor and employment practice includes the following:

• Labor and Employment Litigation
• Employment Compliance and Consulting
• Business Contracts and Agreements

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If you are an executive or a professional in the New York City metropolitan area or in New Jersey and you believe that you have been wrongfully terminated, you believe that you’ve been denied salary, bonuses, commissions, or other wages that are owed to you, you have any other type of dispute with your employer, or you are negotiating your employment agreement or a business contract, call New Jersey Employment Lawyer David S. Rich at New York: (347) 472-1026 | New Jersey: (201) 581-7641 today.