As we pass the one-year anniversary of the New Jersey Appellate Division’s buzz-yielding decision in White v. Starbucks, courts sitting in New Jersey and the Third Circuit continue to dismiss whistleblowing claims when the employee’s alleged whistleblowing activity is simply part and parcel of his job duties and responsibilities. The New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) vests individuals with a private right of action against their employers if they are retaliated against for disclosing, objecting to or refusing to participate in any activity that is illegal, fraudulent, criminal or incompatible with a clear mandate of public policy concerning the public health, safety or welfare. As part of a prima facie CEPA case, an employee must allege that he actually engaged in protected whistleblowing activity.

Last December, the New Jersey Appellate Division decided White v. Starbucks, 2011 N.J. Super. LEXIS 2982 (App. Div. Dec. 9, 2011), which expressly held that reporting violations of law as part of one’s job duties and responsibilities does not constitute whistleblowing activity. Even though Starbucks is not the first decision to bar a plaintiff’s CEPA suit where the underlying complaints are part of the employee’s job duties, the decision was noted by lawyers on both sides of the employment bar as one of great importance and, on the plaintiff’s petition for certification to the state’s Supreme Court, garnered amicus submissions from the New Jersey Employers’ Association and the National Employment Lawyers Association/New Jersey.

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