New Jersey employers facing difficult decisions given business challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic have been hoping for some relief from the amendments to New Jersey’s Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act (NJ WARN Act), set to take effect on July 19, 2020. Simply put, those amendments will lower the bar such that the NJ WARN Act will be triggered by reductions in force that impact 50 or more employees (either full-time or part-time) at or reporting to an establishment (a single location or group of locations within the state) during any 30-day period. In addition, the amendments require employers who lay off employees on or after July 19, 2020, to give employees 90 days’ notice, rather than the 60 days previously required by state law and by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
Author: Alexa E. Miller
COVID-19: New Jersey Updates as of March 22, 2020
On Saturday, March 21, 2020, Governor Murphy issued two additional Executive Orders. The Orders, Executive Order 107 and Executive Order 108 went into effect that same day at 9 p.m. They will remain in effect until revoked or modified.
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COVID-19: New York Updates as of March 22, 2020
Overview of Certain Restrictions:
| Already In Place by March 20, 2020 | In-person workforce reduction by 50%, except for essential businesses.
All common portions of retail shopping malls with an excess of 100,000 square feet of retail space available for lease must close, unless they have a separate exclusive entrance. Essential businesses exempt. Closure of indoor and outdoor public amusement, video lottery or casino gaming, gyms, fitness centers or classes, and movie theaters. |
| By March 21, 2020 at 8 p.m. | In person workforce reduction by 75%, except for essential businesses.
All barbershops, hair salons, tattoo or piercing salons, nail salons, hair removal services and related personal care services must close. |
| By March 22, 2020 at 8 p.m. | 100% of the New York workforce must stay home, except for essential businesses. |
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COVID-19: New Jersey Updates As of March 20, 2020
Statewide Restrictions:
On March 16, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy ordered all schools, casinos, racetracks, gyms, fitness centers, movie theaters, performing arts center, other concert venues, nightclubs, and other entertainment centers to close to the public effective March 16, 2020 at 8 p.m., except for schools, which were ordered to close effective March 18, 2020. Governor Murphy also limited public gatherings to 50 persons or fewer, excluding normal operations at airports, bus and train stations, medical facilities, office environments, factories, assemblages for the purpose of industrial or manufacturing work, construction sites, mass transit, or the purchase of groceries or consumer goods.
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Restructuring the Analysis: New Jersey Now Mandates Severance Pay for Mass Layoffs
On January 21, 2020, Governor Murphy signed Senate Bill 3170 into law, amending the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, New Jersey’s mini-WARN Act (NJ WARN Act), in several significant ways and further deviating from the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (federal WARN Act). The amended NJ WARN Act is set to take effect on July 19, 2020.
New Jersey Expands Employment Protections to Medical Marijuana Users
New Jersey recently joined a growing number of states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma and Rhode Island, that afford certain job protections to employees and applicants who use medical marijuana.
On July 2, 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act into law, which significantly amended and expanded the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, N.J.S.A. 24:61-2 et seq.
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