NJ Judges Open to Loosening Wage Collective Action Requirement

A New Jersey appeals panel Tuesday signaled openness to greatly broadening the ability of workers to bring collective wage actions under less stringent rules than federal employment law or other state class actions.

Superior Court Appellate Division Judges Joseph L. Marczyk, Lisa Puglisi, and Avis Bishop-Thompson all pushed back against an employer’s argument that decades of precedent support a high state bar for class actions, which mirrors federal standards.

Instead, the judges said the text of state law indicates workers could bring “collective” actions on behalf of “similarly situated” plaintiffs without meeting those evidentiary burdens. That could have broad impact ...