New Jersey Considerably Expands Rights and Protections of Momentary Staff By the Lately Enacted Momentary Staff’ Invoice of Rights

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

Key Definitions

Below the Momentary Staff’ Invoice of Rights, a “short-term 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’ short-term, 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 regulation; and sustains duty for the actions of the employed people whereas they render companies to the agency’s clients.”

A “short-term laborer” means “an individual who contracts for employment in a chosen classification placement with a brief assist service agency.”

Nevertheless, “designated classification placement” means an project 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 regulation solely gives protections to short-term 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);
• Development Laborers (47-2060);
• Helpers, Development 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 might designate.

A “third-party consumer” is outlined as “any one that contracts with a brief assist service agency for acquiring short-term laborers in a chosen classification placement.”

Provisions That Went Into Impact on Could 7, 2023

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

Discover Necessities on the Time of Dispatch

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

1. the identify of the short-term laborer;
2. the identify, deal with, and phone variety of:
   • the short-term assist service agency, or the contact info of the agency’s agent facilitating the location;
   • its employees’ compensation service;
   • the worksite employer or third celebration consumer; and
   • the Division of Labor and Workforce Growth;
3. the identify and nature of the work to be carried out;
4. the wages supplied;
5. the identify and deal with of the assigned worksite of every short-term laborer;
6. the phrases of transportation supplied to the short-term 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 offered by the short-term assist service agency or the third celebration consumer; 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 offered, both by the short-term assist service agency or the third celebration consumer, and the price of the meal and tools, if any;
9. for multi-day assignments, the schedule;
10. the size of the project, if identified; and
11. the quantity of sick go away to which short-term employees are entitled.

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

Retaliation Prohibition, Rebuttable Presumption, and Aid

The Momentary Staff’ Invoice of Rights additionally prohibits short-term assist service corporations, their third-party shoppers, and their brokers from retaliating towards short-term laborers for exercising their rights below the regulation. A termination or disciplinary motion towards short-term employees inside 90 days of the particular person’s train of rights below the brand new regulation raises a rebuttable presumption of such motion having been carried out in retaliation for the train of these rights. If a brief employee efficiently alleges illegal retaliation, they may very well be entitled to the higher 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

Momentary 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 Shopper Affairs within the Division of Regulation and Public Security. A brief 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 price assessed by the director. Momentary 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 Shopper Affairs within the Division of Regulation and Public Security may also create and keep on its web site publicly accessible lists of licensed short-term assist service corporations, in addition to these corporations whose certification has been suspended or revoked.

Third-party shoppers should additionally confirm a brief assist service agency’s standing with the director earlier than coming into right into a contract, and once more on March 1 and September 1 of every 12 months. Third-party shoppers who fail to adjust to this requirement are topic to civil penalties as much as $500 per offense. Every day throughout which a 3rd celebration consumer 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

Below the brand new regulation, short-term laborers have to be paid a minimum of the identical common fee of pay and common price of advantages, or the equal thereof, because the everlasting workers performing the identical or related work for the third-party consumer. Moreover, if a brief laborer is contracted to work at a third-party consumer’s worksite in a chosen classification placement, however is just not being utilized by the third-party consumer, then the short-term assist service agency should pay the short-term employee a minimal of 4 hours of pay on the agreed upon fee. If the short-term assist service agency contracts the short-term laborer to work at one other location throughout the identical shift, the agency should pay the short-term employee a minimal of two hours of pay on the agreed upon fee of pay.

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

1. the identify, deal with, and phone variety of every third-party consumer at which the short-term laborer labored;
2. the variety of hours labored by the short-term laborer at every third-party consumer every day throughout the pay interval;
3. the speed of cost for every hour labored, together with any premium fee or bonus;
4. the overall pay interval earnings;
5. the quantity of every deduction constituted of the short-term laborer’s compensation made by the short-term assist service agency, and the aim for which every deduction was made;
6. the present most quantity of a placement price which the short-term assist service agency might cost to a third-party consumer to instantly rent the short-term laborer; and
7. any further info required by the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Growth.

Furthermore, the brand new regulation 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

Momentary 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 chosen 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 out there for the short-term employee’s evaluation and copying. The information that have to be stored embody:

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

Placement Charge and Prohibition on Everlasting Place Acceptance Restrictions

Momentary assist service corporations will likely be prohibited from: (i) limiting the proper of a brief laborer to simply accept a everlasting place with a third-party consumer; (ii) limiting the proper of a third-party consumer to supply employment to a brief laborer; or (iii) limiting the proper of a brief laborer to simply accept a everlasting place for another employment. Nevertheless, a brief assist service agency might cost a placement price to a third-party consumer for using a brief laborer inside the limits prescribed by the brand new regulation.

Non-public Proper of Motion

The Momentary Staff’ Invoice of Rights gives a non-public proper of motion to aggrieved short-term laborers towards the short-term assist service agency and third-party consumer. Momentary laborers who’ve been subjected to a violation of the brand new regulation might deliver a declare within the New Jersey Superior Court docket inside six years from the ultimate date of employment by the short-term assist service agency or the third celebration consumer or from the date of termination of the contract between the short-term assist service agency and the third-party consumer. Such an motion could also be introduced individually or in a category setting, and the short-term assist service agency and third-party consumer may very well be held collectively and severally chargeable for violations.

Subsequent Steps

Many open questions stay as rules haven’t been issued at the moment. Nevertheless, the New Jersey Division of Labor and Workforce Growth has created a web site to offer further steerage into this regulation. Within the meantime, short-term assist service corporations and firms that use such corporations ought to start implementing these new necessities and evaluation their associated contracts to make sure compliance with the Momentary Staff’ Invoice of Rights. We’ll proceed to watch any new developments, together with any rules and steerage from the New Jersey Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Growth.