Articles Discussing General Issues In New Jersey Labor & Employment Law.

Morristown, New Jersey, has released the “Notice of Employee Rights to Paid Sick Time” for use by employers preparing for the Morristown Paid Sick Leave Ordinance’s January 11, 2017, effective date. (For details on the Ordinance, see our article, Morristown, New Jersey, Passes Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.)

Employers in New Jersey must comply with a number of state laws and regulations that often impose different or more stringent requirements on employers than those imposed by federal law. Attorneys in FordHarrison’s Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, office have prepared the New Jersey Employment Law Desk Reference to provide guidance to employers on the various New Jersey state laws. The Desk Reference provides an overview of various state laws impacting employers, including those relating to discrimination and harassment, equal pay, wage and hour requirements, and leave and other benefits requirements. For a preview of the Desk Reference or for information on how to request a copy, visit the In Depth Analysis page of FordHarrison’s Knowledge Center.

A bill in the New Jersey State Senate would bar an employer from entering into an agreement for severance payments with an employee “which results in the employee releasing any claims, or barring any potential claims in the future, that the employee may have against the employer regarding gender discrimination or harassment.” The bill, S2535, also deems any provisions in a severance agreement requiring the release of gender claims “void and unenforceable.” If enacted, the bill will affect Garden State employers and employees significantly.

Morristown, New Jersey, Mayor Timothy P. Dougherty has signed an Executive Order (No. 16-01) delaying the effective date of Morristown’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, O-35-2016, from “upon passage and publication” to January 11, 2017.

New Jersey legislators have delayed a vote on the Paid Sick Leave Act to allow the Assembly and Senate a chance to settle their disputes over the bill’s impact on small employers and its preemptive effect on municipal ordinances mandating paid sick leave. These are the same issues that led to failure of the March 2016 vote in the legislature.

The City of Jersey City, New Jersey, recognizing that building service employees compose “a significant portion” of those who work in the City, is considering an ordinance to establish a minimum 30-hour workweek for them. The measure, launched by City Council President Rolando Lavarro, Jr., and backed by Mayor Steve Fulop, seeks to mandate that employers provide certain building services employees with at least 30 hours of work per workweek.

On December 17, 2015, New Brunswick, New Jersey passed a sick and safe leave ordinance that provides up to 40 hours of paid sick and safe leave to employees beginning on January 6, 2016. Although there are similarities between this ordinance and other sick leave ordinances in New Jersey, there are substantive differences as well. Consequently, employers that previously updated their time-off policies to comply with other sick leave ordinances in New Jersey will need to revisit those policies to ensure compliance.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) has adopted regulations for the Opportunity to Compete Act, the state Ban-the-Box Law, clarifying many questions, including the Act’s impact on businesses with multistate operations.

Elizabeth, New Jersey, joins a growing number of municipalities in the Garden State to enact a City Ordinance mandating that all private employers in the city provide their employees with paid sick time. Ordinance No. 4617 will take effect on March 2, 2016, or at the expiration of current collective bargaining agreements for employees working under CBAs.

On October 29, 2015, the City Council in Jersey City, New Jersey voted to broaden the scope of its paid sick leave ordinance, which was enacted in 2013. Just five days later, on November 3, 2015, voters in Elizabeth, New Jersey approved a paid sick leave law, becoming the 10th municipality in New Jersey to require private employers to provide paid sick time to their employees.1

The Jersey City Council has approved and adopted an ordinance amending the Jersey City sick leave law to make paid sick leave available to more workers in the second largest city in New Jersey.

Executive Summary: As we previously forecast and employers feared, New Jersey’s Supreme Court has dramatically expanded the state’s whistleblower law, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act or “CEPA.” In doing so, the Court held that so-called “watchdog” employees—who monitor, advise, or report to upper management concerning corporate conduct—may invoke the whistleblower protections of CEPA based upon the same consulting, advice, and reporting performed as part of their normal job functions. In rejecting more than a dozen appellate and federal cases dating back nearly a decade, the Court’s decision confirms that CEPA likely is the most far-reaching whistleblowing statute in the U.S.

Executive Summary: On the heels of an appellate decision providing employees a virtual how-to manual to misuse and exploit confidential employer documents and safely provide them to a competitor, New Jersey’s Supreme Court reversed course last week by suggesting that employees do not have competing rights to confidential employer documents in commercial or business disputes. State v. Saavedra (June 23, 2015), clarifies when a sweeping multi-part test should be used to determine when an employee may remove and retain confidential employer documents. That test should be limited to where the employee engages in self-help to further her prosecution of an affirmative claim against the employer brought under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”). This ruling should minimize the impact of Spencer Sav. Bank SLA v. McGrover (App. Div. March 5, 2015), which now arguably misapplied the same multi-part analysis to find a departing employee did not breach his duty of loyalty to his former employer after he absconded with documents asserted to be confidential and proprietary. For a more detailed discussion of this decision, please see our June 25, 2015 Alert, Appellate Decision Teaches New Jersey Employees How To Remove Confidential Documents and Trade Secrets from Employers.

A former school board employee who removed confidential documents to assist in her employment lawsuit filed against the school board may be criminally prosecuted, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled, affirming an Appellate Division decision. State v. Saavedra, No. A-68-13 (June 23, 2015). The Supreme Court’s decision could strengthen employers’ ability to protect their confidential documents, while forcing attorneys to seriously question the advisability of accepting and using documents from clients who may have improperly obtained them from their employers.

In New Jersey, The Opportunity to Compete Act, otherwise known as the “Ban the Box” bill, restricting employers from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal background during the initial stages of the application process, became effective March 1, 2015. (For more information, see our article, New Jersey Governor Christie Signs ‘Ban the Box’ Legislation.)