Disagreement with Internal Policy or Procedure Does Not Give Rise to CEPA Claim

Eddy v. State of New Jersey, et al., 2008 WL 5118401 (App. Div., December 8, 2008) – In a second CEPA case, the Appellate Division held that the plaintiff’s repeated complaints about internal management decisions do not give rise to a viable claim under the Act. For two years, the plaintiff repeatedly complained about his employer’s decisions involving overtime and allocation of resources.  The plaintiff was subsequently transferred and demoted.   

The court found that the plaintiff’s complaints were no more than disagreements with internal procedures and priorities; thus, his employer’s actions did not violate CEPA. It is insufficient, the court said, to simply couch one’s complaints as a threat to public safety, as the plaintiff did here. The court reiterated that CEPA requires a reasonable belief that the employer’s conduct violated a law, rule, or regulation promulgated by law.

Note: This article was published in the January 2009 issue of the New Jersey eAuthority.