A union member’s state-based disability discrimination and retaliatory discharge claims are not automatically pre-empted by federal labor law merely because a union contract exists, a New Jersey appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
In a published opinion in Hejda v. Bell Container, a three-judge panel reinstated claims filed in Superior Court by a fired truck driver alleging that the employer violated his rights under the state’s Law Against Discrimination and the retaliatory discharge provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Law.
