Potential Relief on the Horizon for Business Owners as New Jersey Legislature Considers Controversial Revision To Proposed Statewide Sick Leave Law

A new version of the proposed statewide New Jersey sick leave law, sponsored by Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Voorhees) as well as other Democrats in the Assembly may potentially include a controversial amendment that would make the bill more palatable to businesses. The revised bill could come with an amendment that would pre-empt local governments from adding to any statewide sick leave requirements that would be enacted. NJBIZ is reporting that the revised bill - with such a pre-emption — could resurface by the end of this month. As it currently stands, the proposed statewide bill allows full-time and part-time employees to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Employees at businesses with ten or more employees would have a 72-hour-per-year cap, while employees at businesses with nine or fewer employees would have their paid sick hours per year capped at 40. In its current form, the bill allows New Jersey municipalities to adopt their own local paid sick leave ordinances, as long as those ordinances were in compliance with the statewide law. Nine municipalities have already passed their own paid sick leave ordinances: Jersey City, Newark, Passaic, East Orange, Paterson, Irvington, Montclair, Trenton and Bloomfield. Business groups widely support an amendment to the state bill that would pre-empt all local ordinances. The amendment would allow businesses to create a uniform plan for compliance with the state law, rather than adjusting paid sick leave policies in municipalities that have their own, more expansive paid sick leave laws. In interviews with NJBIZ, leaders from the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and the New Jersey Business & Industry Association expressed disapproval of the idea of a statewide paid sick leave law, but acknowledged that amendments to the bill that would ease the burden on businesses would be welcome. Conversely, representatives from employee advocacy groups New Jersey Citizen Action and New Jersey Working Families informed NJBIZ that an amendment with local pre-emption would be an unwelcome addition to the statewide bill. The Statewide bill’s sponsor in the Senate, Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), seemed open to discussion, stating, “I am working with the Assembly sponsors to advance this measure and discussing the potential for amendments to the legislation.” For more information regarding this proposed bill and to learn how your business can implement best practices when dealing with paid sick leave laws, please contact John C. Petrella, Director of the firm's Employment Litigation Practice Group at jpetrella@genovaburns.com or Dina M. Mastellone, Esq., Director of the firm’s Human Resources Practice Group, at dmastellone@genovaburns.com or 973-533-0777.