Many employers commonly ignore requests from the New Jersey Division of Unemployment and Temporary Disability Insurance (“Division”) to provide the reason they terminated an employee’s employment. With the recent amendments to the state’s Unemployment Compensation Law (UCL), effective July 31, 2023 (the Amendments), employers should rethink that practice. This, among other changes to the UCL, should dramatically alter the way employers deal with New Jersey unemployment compensation claims.
Summarized below are key takeaways from the Amendments.
The wait is over. On January 10, 2023, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed bills S3162/A4768 into law thereby making April 10, 2023 the effective date for the sweeping amendments to the state’s WARN Act (“NJ WARN Act”), which had been placed on hold for three years due to the pandemic.
With the pause lifted, the new, and some would say Draconian, provisions will kick-in in less than three months.
Effective November 16, 2022, non-governmental health care entities must offer eligible employees continued employment for at least four months following a change in control without any reduction in their wages and benefits – including paid time off, health care, retirement, and education benefits in accordance with Senate Bill No. 315 (the Law). Change in control includes sales, transfers, assignments, mergers, and reorganizations and is deemed to “occur on the date of execution of the document effectuating the change.”
On August 1, 2022, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) adopted new and amended regulations concerning the “Display of Official Posters of the Division on Civil Rights,” which require employers, housing providers, and places of public accommodation to prominently display “in places easily visible” to those who would be affected by violations of these laws, posters created by DCR to inform individuals and covered entities of their rights and obligations under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and Family Leave Act (NJFLA).
On February 22, 2021, Governor Murphy signed three separate cannabis reform bills into law that formally legalize the use and possession of recreational marijuana in the Garden state: (1) the “New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act” (the “Cannabis Act”) (NJ A21), which legalizes the recreational use and possession of cannabis or cannabis products (collectively “cannabis items”) for adults; (2) a decriminalization law (NJ A1897), which legalizes the possession of up to six ounces of cannabis and provides for ...
We previously discussed the EEOC’s proposed new wellness program incentive rules under the ADA and GINA in our post, How Big Can the Carrot Be? The proposed rules were to replace the EEOC’s previous “health-contingent” wellness program regulations, which had been struck down by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia because they allegedly permitted large incentives that the court found were essentially coercive and thus in violation of the ADA and GINA proscriptions permitting only voluntary disclosures of disability or genetic-related information ...
Many employers have established wellness programs to promote employee health and, in doing so, help counter the ever increasing costs associated with employer-sponsored health benefit plans. Often employers want to establish programs that provide employees with incentives to achieve certain health outcomes, such as smoking cessation or weight loss. Employers must exercise caution in creating such health-contingent wellness programs, which necessarily require employees to disclose health information, because the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the ...
The first COVID-19 vaccines have started being shipped across the U.S. with the expectation that millions of doses will be administered over the next few weeks, with many times more over the coming months. This is unequivocally good news and reason for optimism. Meanwhile, however, the pandemic continues to spread nationwide and the numbers are rising rapidly.
The unabated second wave spike of COVID-19 infections arriving with the holiday season and our traditional time for gatherings has led governors, mayors and health departments across the country to tighten restrictions on ...
With New Jersey experiencing a second wave spike of COVID-19 infections and with holiday season gatherings upon us, on November 30, 2020 Governor Phil Murphy issued Executive Order 204 (“EO 204” or the “Order”) tightening restrictions on outdoor gatherings and pausing indoor practices and competitions for youth and adult sports.
Indoor Youth and Adult Sports
With limited exception, EO 204 prohibits youth and adult indoor sports practices, competitions, and other organized sporting activities from December 5, 2020 until January 2, 2012. The prohibition will not affect ...
Prompted by the many new telework or remote work arrangements that have arisen in response to COVID-19, on August 24, 2020, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2020-5 (“Bulletin”) to provide guidance regarding employers’ obligation “to exercise reasonable diligence in tracking teleworking employees’ hours of work.” The guidance, which includes citations to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the DOL’s interpretive regulations, and federal case law, does not break new ground; ...
As employers begin to develop and implement plans for reopening and staff return to the workplace, they should be mindful of industry-specific requirements and guidance, which may apply where they operate. Following are some examples that typify the sorts of industry-related requirements various states and municipalities have implemented:
- Connecticut’s reopening requirements for hotels and restaurants overlap, but are not identical. For example, both hotels and indoor sections of restaurants may welcome guests at up to 50 percent capacity, and both require that ...
On June 13, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order 154 (“EO 154”), permitting the reopening of “personal care service facilities,” at 6:00 a.m. on June 22, 2020, provided the facilities comply with mandated social distancing and other health safeguarding requirements. Specifically, EO 154 covers, “cosmetology shops; barber shops; beauty salons; hair braiding shops; nail salons; electrology facilities; spas, including day spas and medical spas, at which solely elective and cosmetic medical procedures are performed; massage parlors ...
On the heels of adding Return to Work guidance to its technical assistance for employers, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Law” (discussed here), on April 23, 2020 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued an update addressing COVID-19 testing by employers. This latest guidance acknowledges that COVID-19 presents a direct threat to the health of others sufficient to justify testing. It cautions, however, that employers should only use tests that are “accurate and reliable.” Specifically ...
On April 17, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) once again updated its technical assistance for employers, titled “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.”
Previously, the EEOC (i) on March 17, 2020, issued initial guidance on COVID-19 in a series of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) (discussed here) (ii) on March 19, updated its publication titled “Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans With Disabilities Act,” to address issues specifically concerning ...
On April 14, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law a new amendment (“New Amendment”) to the New Jersey Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, commonly referred to as the New Jersey WARN Act (“NJ WARN Act”), which was modified in January of this year, to among other things, require payment of severance to eligible employees who suffer a NJ WARN Act covered termination of employment and to require 90 days’ notice of such terminations (the “January Amendment,” which we discussed previously here).
The New Amendment, which was driven by ...
On April 14, 2020, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation (S2374) (the “Law”), amending the New Jersey Family Leave Act (“NJFLA”) leave. Under the Law, which repeals and replaces a March 25, 2020 amendment to the NJFLA about which we wrote here, eligible employees will be entitled to job protected leave to care for a family member as a result of an epidemic of a communicable disease, or efforts to prevent spread of a communicable disease, which:
(a) requires in-home care or treatment of a child due to the closure of the school or place of care of the child of the employee, by ...
UPDATE: On August 10, 2020, the NJDOL formally adopted the temporary rule without change.
On March 20, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation (“Law”) prohibiting employers from taking any adverse employment action against employees who take, or request, time off due to an infectious disease that could affect others at work based on a written recommendation of a New Jersey licensed medical professional. The Law, which we summarized in a previous article, became effective upon enactment.
On April 1, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development ...
In a news conference on March 20, 2020, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all nonessential New York State private businesses and nonprofits to reduce their workforce reporting to work by 100% The announcement essentially amends Executive Order 202.6 (“Order”), issued by Gov. Cuomo on March 18, 2020, which required a 50% workforce reduction, by no later than March 20th at 8 p.m. (On March 19, 2020 Gov. Cuomo had announced a 75% required reduction, which has now been superseded).
The Order requires businesses and nonprofits to use telecommuting and work-from-home procedures ...
On March 17, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted an article on its website, “What You Should Know About the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and COVID-19.” The article confirms that workplace anti-discrimination laws enforced by the EEOC remain applicable, but that nothing in those laws interferes with or prevents “employers from following the guidelines and suggestions made by the CDC or state/local public health authorities about steps employers should take regarding COVID-19.”
In addition, the article provides a link to guidance the ...
On March 10, 2020 the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”), employees who legally use cannabis as permitted by the state’s Compassionate Use of Cannabis of Medical Marijuana Act[i] (“Compassionate Use Act”) may not be fired because they use medical cannabis and that such employees are entitled to reasonable accommodation. In a brief opinion, the Court substantially adopted the Appellate Division’s reasoning in Wild v. Carriage House Funeral Holdings, Inc., about which we previously wrote.
Wild was employed by ...
Our colleagues Maxine Neuhauser, Nathaniel M. Glasser, Denise Dadika, & Anastasia A. Regne,
Following is an excerpt:
In Wild, which we discussed in a recent client alert, plaintiff Justin Wild (“Wild”) alleged that his employer, Carriage Funeral Holdings (“Carriage ...
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