New Jersey Considerably Expands Rights and Protections of Short-term Staff By means of the Just lately Enacted Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights

On February 6, 2023, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights, considerably increasing the rights and protections afforded to the 127,000 momentary employees in New Jersey. The brand new legislation, which can largely take impact on August 5, 2023, although sure provisions already took impact on Might 7, 2023, units new necessities for “momentary assist service corporations” that make use of “momentary laborers” in a “designated classification placement.”

Key Definitions

Underneath the Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights, a “momentary assist service agency” is outlined as “any particular person or entity who operates a enterprise which consists of using people instantly or not directly for the aim of assigning the employed people to help the agency’s clients within the dealing with of the purchasers’ momentary, extra or particular workloads, and who, along with the cost of wages or salaries to the employed people, pays federal social safety taxes and State and federal unemployment insurance coverage; carries employees’ compensation insurance coverage as required by State legislation; and sustains accountability for the actions of the employed people whereas they render providers to the agency’s clients.”

A “momentary laborer” means “an individual who contracts for employment in a delegated classification placement with a brief assist service agency.”

Nevertheless, “designated classification placement” means an task of a brief laborer to carry out work in sure occupational classes as designated by the Bureau of Statistics of the U.S. Division of Labor. Subsequently, the brand new legislation solely gives protections to momentary employees who’re assigned by a brief assist service agency to carry out work in any of the next occupational classes:

• Different Protecting Service Staff (33-9000);
• Meals Preparation and Serving Associated Occupations (35-0000);
• Constructing and Grounds Cleansing and Upkeep Occupations (37-0000);
• Private Care and Service Occupations (39-0000);
• Building Laborers (47-2060);
• Helpers, Building Trades (47-30000);
• Set up, Upkeep, and Restore Occupations (49-0000);
• Manufacturing Occupations (51-0000);
• Transportation and Materials Shifting Occupations (53-0000); or
• Any successor classes because the Bureau of Labor Statistics could designate.

A “third-party shopper” is outlined as “any one that contracts with a brief assist service agency for acquiring momentary laborers in a delegated classification placement.”

Provisions That Went Into Impact on Might 7, 2023

As famous above, sure provisions of the Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights went into impact on Might 7, 2023, together with (i) these mandating discover necessities on the time of dispatch to a third-party shopper, and (ii) the anti-retaliation provisions. The remainder of the legislation will go into impact on August 5, 2023.

Discover Necessities on the Time of Dispatch

Efficient Might 7, 2023, momentary assist service corporations should present detailed wage notices to momentary employees on the time of dispatch. The notices have to be in English and within the language recognized by the momentary employee as their major language. The discover should embody the next gadgets:

1. the identify of the momentary laborer;
2. the identify, tackle, and phone variety of:
   • the momentary assist service agency, or the contact data of the agency’s agent facilitating the position;
   • its employees’ compensation service;
   • the worksite employer or third occasion shopper; and
   • the Division of Labor and Workforce Growth;
3. the identify and nature of the work to be carried out;
4. the wages provided;
5. the identify and tackle of the assigned worksite of every momentary laborer;
6. the phrases of transportation provided to the momentary laborer, if relevant;
7. an outline of the place and whether or not it shall require any particular clothes, protecting tools, and coaching, and what coaching and clothes will likely be supplied by the momentary assist service agency or the third occasion shopper; and any licenses and any prices charged to the worker for provides or coaching;
8. whether or not a meal or tools, or each, are supplied, both by the momentary assist service agency or the third occasion shopper, and the price of the meal and tools, if any;
9. for multi-day assignments, the schedule;
10. the size of the task, if recognized; and
11. the quantity of sick go away to which momentary employees are entitled.

On April 24, 2023, the New Jersey Division of Labor and Workforce Growth issued a Discover Kind that momentary assist service corporations should full and supply to employees on the time of dispatch.

Retaliation Prohibition, Rebuttable Presumption, and Aid

The Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights additionally prohibits momentary assist service corporations, their third-party purchasers, and their brokers from retaliating towards momentary laborers for exercising their rights underneath the legislation. A termination or disciplinary motion towards momentary employees inside 90 days of the particular person’s train of rights underneath the brand new legislation raises a rebuttable presumption of such motion having been completed in retaliation for the train of these rights. If a brief employee efficiently alleges illegal retaliation, they might be entitled to the larger of all authorized or equitable reduction as could also be acceptable or liquidated damages equal to $20,000 per incident of retaliation, reinstatement, if acceptable, and legal professional’s charges and prices.

Provisions Going Into Impact On August 5, 2023

State Certification

Short-term assist service corporations are prohibited from making any designated classification placements until they obtain certification to take action from the Director of the Division of Client Affairs within the Division of Legislation and Public Security. A short lived assist service agency looking for certification should file a kind together with proof of Staff’ Compensation insurance coverage protection, an employer account quantity for the cost of unemployment insurance coverage contributions and a payment assessed by the director. Short-term assist service corporations that make designated classification placements with out first acquiring a certification from the director are topic to a $5,000 penalty for every violation, and every day of operation with out the certification is a separate and distinct violation. The Division of Client Affairs within the Division of Legislation and Public Security can even create and keep on its web site publicly accessible lists of licensed momentary assist service corporations, in addition to these corporations whose certification has been suspended or revoked.

Third-party purchasers should additionally confirm a brief assist service agency’s standing with the director earlier than getting into right into a contract, and once more on March 1 and September 1 of every 12 months. Third-party purchasers who fail to adjust to this requirement are topic to civil penalties as much as $500 per offense. Every day throughout which a 3rd occasion shopper contracts with an individual working as a brief assist service agency however not licensed as a brief assist service agency constitutes a separate and distinct offense.

Wage Necessities

Underneath the brand new legislation, momentary laborers have to be paid a minimum of the identical common price of pay and common value of advantages, or the equal thereof, because the everlasting staff performing the identical or related work for the third-party shopper. Moreover, if a brief laborer is contracted to work at a third-party shopper’s worksite in a delegated classification placement, however isn’t being utilized by the third-party shopper, then the momentary assist service agency should pay the momentary employee a minimal of 4 hours of pay on the agreed upon price. If the momentary assist service agency contracts the momentary laborer to work at one other location throughout the identical shift, the agency should pay the momentary employee a minimal of two hours of pay on the agreed upon price of pay.

Along with the wage discover necessities that have to be supplied on the time of dispatch, momentary assist service corporations should additionally present momentary laborers with an in depth itemized assertion on their paycheck stub or on a kind authorized by the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Growth on the time of cost of wages. The assertion should checklist:

1. the identify, tackle, and phone variety of every third-party shopper at which the momentary laborer labored;
2. the variety of hours labored by the momentary laborer at every third-party shopper every day in the course of the pay interval;
3. the speed of cost for every hour labored, together with any premium price or bonus;
4. the overall pay interval earnings;
5. the quantity of every deduction produced from the momentary laborer’s compensation made by the momentary assist service agency, and the aim for which every deduction was made;
6. the present most quantity of a placement payment which the momentary assist service agency could cost to a third-party shopper to instantly rent the momentary laborer; and
7. any extra data required by the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Growth.

Furthermore, the brand new legislation prohibits sure wage deductions, together with for transportation, background checks, and for cashing paychecks. Whereas the prices of meals and tools could also be deducted, the deductions can not scale back a brief laborer’s pay beneath minimal wage.

Recordkeeping Necessities

Short-term assist service corporations will likely be required to maintain information associated to every time they ship an individual to work as a brief laborer in a delegated classification placement. The information have to be maintained for six years, and information described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (6), (7), and (8) have to be made obtainable for the momentary employee’s assessment and copying. The information that have to be stored embody:

1. the contact data for the third-party shopper;
2. the contact data for every momentary laborer and the kind of work they carried out, the variety of hours labored, the hourly price of pay, and the date they had been despatched;
3. the identify and title of the person(s) on the third-party shopper who’re liable for the transaction;
4. particular {qualifications} or attributes of every momentary laborer;
5. copies of all contracts with and invoices for the third-party shopper;
6. copies of all employment notices supplied to momentary laborers pursuant to the legislation;
7. the quantities of any deductions to be produced from every momentary laborer’s compensation by the third-party shopper or the momentary assist service agency;
8. verification of the particular value of apparatus or meals charged to the momentary laborer; and
9. any extra data required by the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Growth.

Placement Charge and Prohibition on Everlasting Place Acceptance Restrictions

Short-term assist service corporations will likely be prohibited from: (i) limiting the fitting of a brief laborer to just accept a everlasting place with a third-party shopper; (ii) limiting the fitting of a third-party shopper to supply employment to a brief laborer; or (iii) limiting the fitting of a brief laborer to just accept a everlasting place for another employment. Nevertheless, a brief assist service agency could cost a placement payment to a third-party shopper for using a brief laborer inside the limits prescribed by the brand new legislation.

Personal Proper of Motion

The Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights gives a non-public proper of motion to aggrieved momentary laborers towards the momentary assist service agency and third-party shopper. Short-term laborers who’ve been subjected to a violation of the brand new legislation could carry a declare within the New Jersey Superior Courtroom inside six years from the ultimate date of employment by the momentary assist service agency or the third occasion shopper or from the date of termination of the contract between the momentary assist service agency and the third-party shopper. Such an motion could also be introduced individually or in a category setting, and the momentary assist service agency and third-party shopper might be held collectively and severally accountable for violations.

Subsequent Steps

Many open questions stay as laws haven’t been issued right now. Nevertheless, the New Jersey Division of Labor and Workforce Growth has created a web site to supply extra steerage into this legislation. Within the meantime, momentary assist service corporations and corporations that use such corporations ought to start implementing these new necessities and assessment their associated contracts to make sure compliance with the Short-term Staff’ Invoice of Rights. We’ll proceed to watch any new developments, together with any laws and steerage from the New Jersey Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Growth.