New Jersey Appellate Court Holds State Whistleblower Claim Preempted by Federal Labor Law

New Jersey’s whistleblower statute, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”), N.J.S.A. 34:19-1, is one of the most expansive whistleblower statutes in the country, offering potential plaintiffs the allure of recovering uncapped compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. For this reason, employees and their counsel frequently try to strategically transform a straight-forward termination case into a whistleblower claim. Recently, employers with unionized workforces have made some headway against these claims by arguing successfully that they are preempted by federal labor law asm provided in the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (LMRA), 29 U.S.C.A. § 185(a), and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 151-166.

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