A former chemical plant operator — and a whistleblower — who sued the company he worked for after experiencing workplace retaliation has been awarded more than $2 million in damages and lost wages.

According to a recent news report, The New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division ruled in favor of both the man and a punitive damage settlement which had been handed down earlier by a lower court in a whistleblower lawsuit against his company.

The man had sued his company in 2004 under the state Conscientious Employee Protection Act after he was reportedly retaliated against for filing a complaint about his workplace with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The man was acting as a whistleblower for what he believed was a public safety hazard in the workplace. He had first been vocal about beliefs that a certain reactor could potentially blow up and kill people in 2003; when even fellow employees retaliated against him, he filed with OSHA the next year.

Following his complaint, he alleged that for two years his company retaliated against him by cutting his hours and overtime, rearranging his shifts and giving him bad evaluations, according to the news report.

A jury reportedly earlier ruled in his favor and awarded him more than $2 million for lost wages, in addition to punitive damages and attorney fees. When his company appealed, an appellate court reversed the judgment and stopped the monetary award for lost wages.

The man appealed again and the state Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s decision, awarding damages and a ruling in favor of the whistleblower. This case illustrates that New Jersey law does protect whistleblowers, and it also provides them with the means to obtain compensation, or even get their jobs back.

Source: Today’s Sunbeam, “Appellate Court upholds $500,000 punitive damage award against Dupont,” Phil Dunn, Nov. 8, 2011