Bill > A5145

Introduced Session

This bill amends the "Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act", P.L.2007, c.212, to increase, from 60 days to 90 days, the minimum number of days that covered employers must give to employees of a covered plant closing, transfer, or mass layoff, and makes the act's requirement to provide severance pay apply whether or not the employer provides the required notice. The bill provides that the severance is regarded as compensation due to an employee for back pay, and earned in full upon the termination of the employment relationship. The bill revises the act's definitions of "establishment" and "mass layoff" to include a greater number of employers across the State. The bill provides that the act applies to any reduction in workforce which is not the result of a transfer or termination of operations and which results in the termination of employment at an establishment during any 30-day period for 50 or more of the full or part-time employees at or reporting to the establishment. Previously, the act applied to lay-offs only of 500 or more full-time employees or to 50 or more full-time employees representing at least one-third of employees in a worksite. The bill provides that if an employer provides an employee with less than 90 days of notification before termination of employment, the employer must provide that employee with an additional four weeks of pay. The bill expands the definition of employers that are subject to the act to include a person or entity that makes a decision responsible for the employment action that gives rise to a mass layoff subject to notification. The bill provides that no waiver of the right to severance provided pursuant to the bill may be effective without approval by the commissioner or a court of competent jurisdiction. The bill provides additional employment protections for employees of an employer that employs 50 or more employees if the employer undergoes a "change in control," that is, a change in ownership or filing of bankruptcy in which control of the employees' workplace changes hands to a successor employer. The bill requires the successor employer to retain, without reduction of pay, all employees, other than managerial, supervisory, confidential, temporary, and certain part-time employees, for a transition period of not less than 180 days following the date of the change of control, unless the commissioner approves a reduction in the workforce. The bill requires, no later than 15 days before the date of the change of control, the predecessor employer to post public notice of the change of control at the work sites of all affected employees, and provide specified information about employees to the successor employer, who is required to retain that list and other records regarding offers of employment, termination, or written evaluations of the employees. The bill permits, for two years after the transition period, the successor employer to reduce the total number of employees only if approved by the commissioner, who may not authorize a reduction except upon a showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the employer has conducted a study of the nature and scope of the work performed by the employees proposed to be eliminated, and that the study shows that the reduction is necessary for the continued solvency of the business.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

R. Bruce Land (D)*,  Matthew Milam (D)*,  Annette Quijano (D)*,  Thomas Giblin (D),  Gordon Johnson (D),  Shavonda Sumter (D), 

Substituted by S3170 (3R) (on 01/13/2020)