New Jersey Legislature Passes Bill to Set the Effective Date of Amendments to the New Jersey WARN Act

On December 19, 2022, the New Jersey Legislature handed a invoice that, if signed by Governor Phil Murphy, would amend the productive date of amendments to the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Work Reduction Notification Act (“NJ WARN”) that have been at first handed in January of 2020. Those amendments were being earlier paused as a outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, and under that pause would acquire impact 90 days after Governor Murphy’s Govt Get No. 103 expired. Because Government Buy No. 103 remains in impact, without having any indicator of when it may expire, the New Jersey Legislature handed this monthly bill to set an efficient day of such NJ Alert amendments.

In January of 2020, as we have earlier included, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into regulation Senate Monthly bill 3170, making drastic amendments to NJ Alert. These amendments to NJ Alert would:

• Cut down the bring about requirement to any layoff of 50 or additional personnel

• Broaden coverage past a single put of employment to all terminations built by a included employer in the condition of New Jersey

• Expand coverage to all employers with 100 or much more staff members irrespective of how lengthy those people staff members have been with the organization, or how a lot of several hours these workers function weekly

• Extend the recognize period from 60 days to 90 days

• Mandate severance shell out to all terminated employees at a fee of one particular week for just about every yr worked for the firm, with an enhance to 4 weeks if timely recognize is not presented and

• Prohibit workforce from waiving their rights to severance beneath NJ Alert devoid of condition or court acceptance.

In March 2020, as a end result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Murphy issued Govt Get No. 103 declaring a point out of emergency. Then, in April 2020, the New Jersey Legislature handed, and Governor Murphy signed supplemental amendments to NJ Alert. These amendments expressly excluded layoffs as a end result of “natural disaster” or “national crisis,” like pandemics like COVID-19, from NJ Warn. Also, these amendments also delayed the productive date of the prior amendments until finally 90 days adhering to the expiration of Governor Murphy’s Executive Order No. 103.

Now, 32 months afterwards, with no sign that Executive Order 103 will expire whenever quickly, the New Jersey Legislature has moved to speed the implementation of the January 2020 amendments. Governor Murphy has not still indicated if he intends to sign the bill, so it is unclear how soon companies will be pressured to comply with the additional burdensome specifications of the January 2020 amendments. However, since the amendments would consider impact only 90 times right after remaining signed into legislation, employers must be prepared for this improve. 

*Wolfram Ott is a regulation clerk in the Labor and Work team and assisted with the drafting of this write-up.