Sufficiency of adverse action to give rise to CEPA claim.

The plaintiff was a deckhand aboard a passenger ferry and a member of a collective bargaining unit that was governed by a CBA. The plaintiff filed an action challenging the terms of the CBA, and in response, the employer reduced the hours of all employees and identified the plaintiff's action as the cause. The plaintiff's co-workers began to confront the plaintiff and demand that he drop his CBA challenge. This eventually led to the plaintiff's resignation. In reversing the trial court's dismissal of the action, the appellate court held that the creation of a sufficiently hostile work environment that leads to an employee's resignation is akin to a termination and is sufficient to support a CEPA claim.

Case Law Alert - 1st Quarter 2013