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New Jersey Senate Proposes Misclassification of Workers as Independent Contractors

S3920—Does NOT change the current “ABC “ Test in NJ but does contain new enforcement tools that the NJDOL deems necessary due to a past history of out of State employers, mainly construction subcontractors, who continue to ignore current laws and compliance efforts by NJDOL. The proposed changes include: expansion of NJDOL “Stop Work” orders to affect ALL work sites used by an employer rather than just the site where an alleged violation was found, would require payment of wages to workers affected by the “Stop Work “order for up to 10 days of the duration of the Order, increases fines for ignoring a “Stop Work “ order to $5K per day and empowers the Attorney General to seek injunctive relief in the courts against employers who continue to ignore compliance efforts by NJDOL. If passed NJDOL has NO plans to hire additional staff for enforcement other than State employees from other agencies or departments if the need arises in the future,

S3921—Creates an Office of Strategic Compliance with a $1M budget to coordinate all enforcement activities , including alleged misclassification, between various State/Federal agencies. They would also be empowered to review ALL applications to the State for any “direst business/financial/economic development assistance including job training grants, with the ability to deny access to those program when a passed history of alleged misclassification has been reported.

S3922—Legislation would empower the NJ Dept of Banking & Insurance to use the existing NJ Insurance Fraud Prevention Act to investigate employers who allegedly deny workers access to company benefits such as health or dental insurance as well as Workers Compensation coverage by misclassifying workers as independent contractors.

All three bills, may appear on the current legislative calendar which is schedule to end on June 30th, NYCMCA will provide additional information and details in the event that any of the measure outlined above make to a floor vote.


Updated

New York Health and Essential Rights Act

After passing the New York Health and Essential Rights Act (NY HERO ACT), the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) issued its “Model Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan.” The NY HERO ACT mandates that employers adopt the DOL’s model plan or establish an alternative plan that at least meets the DOL’s minimum requirements by August 5, 2021. What does this mean for your company?

Businesses Need to Act Now

  • By August 5, 2021, employers are required to adopt an Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan
  • By September 4, 2021, employers must notify and make their plan available to all employees
  • By November 1, 2021, employers with 10 or more employees must begin allowing employees to form joint labor management workplace safety committees

For more resources from the NYS DOL, visit their NY HERO ACT webpage.