Articles Tagged with Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”)

A new decision from New Jersey’s Appellate Division recognizes that an employer can be liable for retaliating against an employee who filed an anonymous whistleblower complaint if the evidence supports the inference that it could have realized she was the one who filed the complaint.

Court finds whistlblower protected from retaliation after making anonymous call.For 14 years, Carol Smith worked for Konica Minolta Business Solutions (“KMBS”), primarily as a sales representative.  In 2018, Ms. Smith reported to her supervisors that over a million dollars of equipment had been shipped to a warehouse, and KMBS had recorded it as installed and paid employees a commission for selling that equipment, but the equipment actually remained in the warehouse and KMBS was improperly using it as collateral for bank loans.

Ms. Smith’s supervisors failed to address her complaint, and instead began harassing her.  Accordingly, she eventually reported the fraudulent activity anonymously, through KMBS’ employee whistleblower hotline.

A recent decision from the New Jersey Appellate Division decision recognizes that, under the right circumstances an employee can be protected by the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”) when she resigns because she is not willing to participate in her employer’s illegal conduct.  CEPA is New Jersey’s whistleblower law, which many courts have described to be the broadest such law in the nation.

Hope Moser worked for the Streamwood Company as the assistant property manager at the Madison Court apartments. Her immediate supervisor, Scott Leonard, was Streamwood’s regional manager and the son of Streamwood’s owner.

Employee protected by CEPA after refusing to provide false information on housing application formIn January 2021, Mr. Leonard told Ms. Moser that she should check “no” on all housing screening forms in response to the question whether the form was being completed as a Section 8 housing application. Ms. Moster objected because she believed doing so would violate the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”), which prohibits housing discrimination against prospective Section 8 tenants.

A recent decision from New Jersey’s Appellate Division recognizes it can be retaliation in violation of the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”) for a police department to harass one of its members because he objected to a new policy he reasonably believed is an illegal arrest quota system.

Police officer experiences retaliation for objecting to quota systemCalvin Anderson has been a member of the East Orange Police Department for over 20 years.  His supervisor, Anthony Cook, instituted a “productivity improvement system” that Anderson believed violated a New Jersey law that prohibits police departments from instituting arrest quota systems.  Anderson, who was a lieutenant at the time, complained about the productivity improvement system and refused to implement it.

Anderson filed a lawsuit against the Department and Cook, alleging they retaliated against him in violation of CEPA.  He claims Cook retaliated against him by investigating him for neglect-of-duty regarding his supposed failure to complete an accident-reconstruction report.  Even though the investigating officer concluded Anderson did nothing wrong, Cook then filed a complaint to the Internal Affairs Department about the same incident.  In addition, Cook required Anderson to increase his productivity in terms of stops and arrests in a crime zone, and issued him a written warning notice for failing to do so.  Cook also threatened to bring neglect-of-duty charges against Anderson for failing to file an incident report about another officer, even though doing so was the responsibility of a sergeant.  In addition, Cook ordered another captain to investigate Anderson, and threatened to issue a written warning to Anderson, for failing to report to a lineup for a July Fourth celebration.  Likewise, Cook berated Anderson in front of the mayor for supposedly neglecting his duty and wasting taxpayer dollars, and frequently assigned him to the midnight shift, which prevented him from working traffic details, which Anderson claims caused him to lose $10,000 to $12,000 in compensation.

Whistleblower reports Medicaid fraudIn a recent opinion, New Jersey’s Appellate Division reinstated Margaret Gatham’s whistleblower claim against Care One Management, LLC, its Executive Vice President, Elizabeth Straus, and its Deputy General Counsel, Thomas A. McKinney.

Ms. Gatham worked for Care One from 2005 until she resigned in July 2012.  In 2015, Care One’s Chief Strategy Officer, Timothy Hodges, contacted her to discuss her potentially returning to Care One based on her past success turning the facility around, including her success collecting money.  In August 2015, Ms. Gatham returned to Care One as its Director of the Shared Business Office.

In approximately September 2015, Ms. Gathman discovered that Care One had failed to return to Medicare, Medicaid and other entities and individuals, overpayments and security deposits for residents who had died, in violation of the Affordable Care Act.  In early 2016, Ms. Gatham reported this issue to her immediate supervisor.  Ms. Gatham came up with a plan for Care One to return the money.  Ms. Gatham indicated she was concerned about the company’s failure to return those funds, which she estimated could have been $13 million.  She also periodically updated members of the company’s senior management, including Ms. Strauss, about those plans.

In a recent employment law case, New Jersey’s Appellate Division ruled that an employer had waived its right to compel arbitration by waiting 10 months before it sought to do so.

Tevin Welcome worked as a van driver for Huffmaster, Inc.  Before Huffmaster hired him, Mr. Welcome completed an online application.  The application included an arbitration provision, which indicated that if he accepted a job with the company, then he would have to resolve any dispute with the company, including claims of discrimination or retaliation, through arbitration instead of in court.

Van driver fired after objecting to violations of COVID-19 mask mandateWhen Huffmaster hired Mr. Welcome, he moved from Texas to New Jersey for the job.  However, he quickly discovered that few of his coworkers and the clients who rode in the van he drove complied with New Jersey’s COVID-19 mask mandate.  Mr. Welcome was particularly concerned that he could get COVID and give it to his six-year-old son who has health problems.

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