New Jersey has enacted legislation (Assembly Bill 4682), which creates various employment protections for service employees during changes of ownership. Assembly Bill 4682 takes effect on Oct.22, 2023.
The Details
Covered Workers
Under the law, a service employee is an individual employed or assigned to a covered location on a full- or part-time basis for at least 60 days (previously 90 days) that is responsible for certain:
- Food preparation services at educational facilities;
- Care or maintenance of a building or property; or
- Airport services.
The law does not cover:
- A managerial or professional employee;
- A worker regularly scheduled to work less than 16 hours per week; or
- An individual who performs work on a building, structural, electric, HVAC or plumbing project, if the work requires a municipal building or construction department permit.
See the text of the law for further details on covered workers.
Employer Requirements
Under the law, an employer that transitions their business to another employer (the successor employer) must fulfill the following requirements at least fifteen days before terminating a service contract, contracting out services that it previously performed, or selling or transferring property where service employees are employed:
- Request (and provide to the successor employer) a list containing the name and limited job information of each employee on the service contract;
- Provide written notice to a collective bargaining representative of the affected service employees of the decision to terminate the service contract, enter into a new service contract, or sell or transfer the property;
- Post in a conspicuous location, a written notice to all affected service employees that describes the pending termination of the service contract, entrance into a service contract, or sale or transfer of the property at any affected work site; and
- Provide the covered employees and their collective bargaining representative the name and address of the successor employer or the purchaser or transferee of the property.
Successor Employer Requirements
Under the law, a successor employer must:
- Provide an affected service employee a written offer of employment;
- Send a copy of the job offer to an employee's collective bargaining representative; and
- Retain an affected service employee at a covered location for 60 days or until its service contract is terminated (whichever is earlier).
A successor employer:
- Is not required to retain every affected service employee during the 60-day transition period, provided the successor employer:
- May not discharge a service employee without just cause during the 60-day transition period. The law does not define just cause.
Note: The discharge portion of the law may not apply if a successor employer, on or before the termination of the service contract, agrees to the collective bargaining agreement of the awarding authority or contractor, which provides terms and conditions for the discharge or laying off of employees.
The law also changes to 60 days (previously 90 days) for the definition of the transition period and the duration that a successor employer must:
- Retain an affected service employee at a covered location; and
- Wait before discharging a retained service employee (absent a just cause termination).
Covered locations:
- A warehouse or distribution center;
- An industrial site or pharmaceutical lab;
- A hospital, nursing care facility, senior care center or other health care provider location;
- A commercial center, complex or office building, or complex that is more than 100,000 square feet; or
- A cultural center or complex, such as an arena, museum, convention center or performance hall.
See the text of the law for further details on locations covered under the law.
Penalties
Employers that are found to have violated the law may face a maximum fine of $2,500 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each subsequent violation. Each week that a violation occurs is considered a separate offense.
Next Steps
If you have questions on your business’s compliance with Assembly Bill 4682, consider consulting legal counsel.