.jpg?width=1170&name=FranklyHR_blog_Header%20(1).jpg)
Previous Updates
Notice of Employment Separation
As noted in a previous FrankCrum News Alert, New Jersey employers must submit complete worker separation information directly to the NJ Department of Labor (NJDOL). If this information isn’t provided within seven days of an employee’s separation, the NJDOL may issue monetary penalties. FrankCrum can submit worker separation information directly to the NJDOL for you. What to Do?
- Submit a Notice of Employment Separation Form to your payroll representative and copy UnemploymentClaims@frankcrum.com.
Be sure to include:
- The employee’s job title and job duties
- Work schedule
- Immediate supervisor’s name, title, and phone number
- The employee’s email address
- Alternatively, you can process the termination on MyFrankCrum.com and email the additional details to UnemploymentClaims@frankcrum.com right away.
Don’t Forget the BC-10! You must give each employee a printed copy of the benefit instructions (Form BC-10) when they separate—whether it’s permanent or temporary. You do not need to send the completed BC-10 form to the Division. Questions? Contact FrankCrum’s unemployment department at UnemploymentClaims@frankcrum.com.
Expands Family Leave Law
The New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) allows eligible employees of covered employers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave within a 24-month period to care for a family member or a person equivalent. Signed into law on January 17, Assembly Bill 3451 amends the NJFLA to expand employee eligibility and employer coverage. It will also strengthen employee reinstatement rights under New Jersey's temporary disability leave and paid family leave law. It will take effect six months after its passage, which is projected to be July 17, 2026.
| Current Law | Amended Law | |
| Employee Eligibility Employees are eligible for NJFLA leave if they have: |
|
|
| Employer Coverage Employers in New Jersey are covered under the NJFLA if they: | Employ 30 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. | Employ 15 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. |
Former New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who signed the bill into law, estimated that more than 400,000 additional workers will be eligible for family leave under the amendments. AB 3451 also amends New Jersey's temporary disability leave and paid family leave law to clarify employee reinstatement rights. It provides that an employee who received temporary disability benefits or paid family leave is entitled to reinstatement to the same or an equivalent position, with the same or equivalent seniority, status, benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment. The employee will retain all rights under any applicable layoff and recall system, including a system under a collective bargaining agreement, as if the employee had not taken the leave. The amendments to the temporary disability leave and paid family leave law also provide that employees may use paid family leave, earned sick leave, and temporary disability benefits in any order. But employees may not receive more than one type of paid leave at the same time during any period.
Captive Audience Meetings
https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2024/A4429/bill-text?f=A4500&n=4429_S3
Family Leave Insurance
Pay Transparency
Pay Transparency
Commissions Are Wages
NJ employers now face an increased risk of wage and hour lawsuits and should carefully review their commission agreements to ensure full compliance with state laws.
AI Guidance
2025-0108_DCR-Guidance-on-Algorithmic-Discrimination.pdf
Pay Transparency
Stay tuned for additional information in the new year.
Disability and Leave Rates
- The 2025 Temporary Disability Insurance(TDI) rate is 0.23% of the first $165,400 in wages. TDI's maximum employee contribution is $380.42 per year.
- The 2025 Family Leave Insurance (FLI) rate will be 0.33% of the first $165,400 in wages. FLI maximum employee contribution $545.82 per year.
Division of Employer Accounts | Rate information, contributions, and due dates
Additional Protections for Immigrant Workers
Civil Rights Laws Apply to Out-of-State Remote Workers
Family Leave Act
NJFLA FAQ - New Jersey Office of Attorney General (njoag.gov)
Family Leave Contribution Rate
Amends Unemployment Insurance Notice Requirement
Employment of Minors
- Minors and their employers each go to MyWorkingPapers.nj.gov to start.
- The employer is emailed a unique eight-digit code they share with every minor they hire.
- The minor fills out their working papers application online, entering the employer’s unique eight-digit code. The minor adds their caregiver’s name and email address.
- The employer is emailed when a minor applies for working papers using the unique eight-digit code assigned to their business. The employer clicks the link in the email to add job duties and hours and gives their OK.
- The caregiver is emailed that a working papers application has been started by a minor in their care. The caregiver clicks the link in the email to give their OK and provide the minor’s proof of age.
- The minor and their employer each receive an email when the caregiver takes action on the working papers application.
- The minor can begin working — unless they receive an email rejecting their application. (Notification of approval/rejection can be expected within 24 hours of the caregiver taking action.)
Temporary Workers Bill of Rights
Temporary staffing agencies must provide a person assigned as a laborer in certain industries notice in English and the employee's primary language of certain information, including:
- Name of the temporary worker;
- Contact information for the temporary staffing firm and its workers' compensation carrier;
- Name and address of the worksite employer or client;
- The nature of the work to be performed and wages offered;
- Length of assignment, if known;
- Transportation and meal information, if applicable;
- Job description, including any special clothing or protective equipment required; and
- Sick leave to which the temporary worker is entitled.
- Making a complaint alleging a violation to the temporary staffing agency, client, community organization, or state or federal agency;
- Instituting a proceeding under the law; or
- Testifying or preparing to testify in an investigation or proceeding under the law.
Other provisions of the NJTWBR are effective August 5, 2023.
Employers of Minors To Register with the State
- The name of the employer;
- The email address of the employer;
- Any location of the employer's business operations, including any location at which a minor will be working;
- The number and names of minors whom the employer has hired or, for seasonal employment, expects to hire; and
- A certified statement that the employer is employing minors in only those positions permitted by law to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of minors.
Employers must update their registration for any minor employee who changes positions.
WARN Act Updated
- Covers employers with 100+ employees (counting employees outside the state), regardless of full-time or part-time status (as long as the employer has operated in NJ for more than three years).
- The definition of "establishment” now includes either a single site or a group of locations within NJ.
- Employers must provide notice of a closure or mass layoff at least 90 days in advance (currently 60 days).
- Employers must pay severance equal to one week of pay for each full year of employment (NJ is the only state to require severance pay in addition to notice). If the employer fails to provide the full 90 days' notice, it will have to pay employees an additional four weeks of severance.
- The notice and pay will be required when (i) an employer terminates or transfers its operations in an "establishment" during any continuous 30-day period (or during a 90-day aggregation period) that results in the termination of 50 or more employees (either full- or part-time); or (ii) the employer conducts a "mass layoff" (a reduction in force (not the result of a transfer or termination of operations) that results in the termination of 50 or more employees (either full- or part-time)), at any group of locations within NJ, including employees who "report to" any location in NJ (currently at least 33% of the workforce).
- Employees cannot waive their right to severance without approval by the Commissioner of Labor or a court of competent jurisdiction.
Learn more about NJ WARN here.
.
Employee Notice of Tracking Devices
Starting April 19, 2022, an employer who knowingly makes use of a tracking device in a vehicle used by an employee without providing written notice to the employee is subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed:
- $1,000 for the first violation; and
- $2,500 for each subsequent violation.
Age Discrimination Protection
The Governor signed into law an amendment to extend age into their discrimination protections. In addition:
- New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) has been expanded to address age discrimination against employees
- New Jersey government or state employers no longer have the authority to enforce mandatory retirement for their employees at a certain age
- New Jersey employers can no longer refuse to hire or promote any individual solely on the basis of them reaching age 70 or older
- The expanded NJLAD broadens the remedies that employees can pursue to obtain relief if they are victims of age discrimination
- Institutions of higher education in New Jersey are no longer permitted to require tenured employees at colleges and universities to retire at the age of 70
Hiring Preference to Certain Workers
The Governor recently signed into law legislation that will require employers with 50 or more employees to provide a hiring preference to employees—following a work-related injury—who have reached maximum medical improvement but are unable to return to the job at which the employee was previously employed.
Under the law, employers are not required to create a new job for an employee who cannot return to his or her previous one. The law also does not impair any right of an individual with a disability to a reasonable accommodation under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. However, the law does not define “hiring preference” or provide any guidance as to an employer’s obligation in that regard. It is important that employers take care not to discriminate against other job applicants on the basis of any protected trait when providing this hiring preference.
Hours for Minors Extended
Until September 6, 2021, a minor between the ages of 16 and 18 may work up to 50 hours in one week with written permission from a parent or legal guardian. Previously, businesses could not schedule these teens for more than 40 hours a week of work.
Misclassification of Workers
Governor Murphy has signed legislation into law aimed at further penalizing employers for misclassifying employees as independent contractors. New Jersey employers that engage in employee misclassification are now subject to increased fines, new legal enforcement actions, and stop-work orders. Learn more here.
Cannabis Criminal Background Protections
Effective August 1, 2021, New Jersey employers are prohibited from inquiring about or taking adverse action against an applicant based on certain cannabis-related offenses.
Specifically, an employer may not take adverse action against an applicant solely on the basis of any arrest, charge, conviction or adjudication of delinquency for such offenses. An employer also may not require an applicant to disclose or reveal such arrests, charges, convictions or adjudications.
COVID-19 Vaccine Can Be Required
On March 19, 2021, the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH) published guidance stating that an employer can require that its employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine to return to the workplace. The DOH guidance, however, does include exceptions to mandatory vaccination policies implemented by employers as follows: if an employee cannot get the COVID-19 vaccine because of a disability that precludes him or her from being vaccinated; where an employee’s doctor has advised the employee not to get the vaccine while pregnant or breastfeeding; or where an employee has a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance that precludes him or her from receiving the vaccine, an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation from its mandatory vaccine policy – unless doing so would impose an undue burden on its operations.
A reasonable accommodation may include permitting an employee to continue to work remotely or otherwise work in a manner that limits the risk of any harm to other employees or the public, or providing an employee with PPE that “sufficiently mitigates” an employee’s risk of COVID-19 transmission and exposure. The guidance explains that, under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, if there is no “reasonable accommodation” an employer may provide to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission to others in the workplace (e.g., employees and customers), then the employer is permitted to enforce its mandatory vaccination policy (thus excluding unvaccinated employees from the physical workplace) – even where the employee is unvaccinated due to a disability, pregnancy or breastfeeding, or due to a sincerely held religious belief. An employer, however, may not “automatically discipline” an employee who cannot get vaccinated as it may be precluded from doing so under other laws, regulations, or policies.
Employers should continue to monitor the law for any new developments. Employers with multi-state operations must continue to be mindful of laws in other states in which they have employees.
November 2020
New Jersey Legalizes Recreational Marijuana
Effective January 1, 2021, the recreational use of marijuana (cannabis) by adults aged 21 and over is legal in New Jersey. The state legislature is to enact legislation likely addressing several issues, including how the legalization affects an employer's right to maintain a drug-free workplace.
The legalization of recreational marijuana was addressed on ballot measure Public Question 1, which was approved by New Jersey voters on November 3, 2020.
