NJBIA is strongly opposing a bill that sets burdensome requirements for New Jersey employers as it relates to publicly advertised job postings – some of which may result in minimum penalties of $1,000 a month if compliance is not met.
Bill A-4625 (Danielsen, D-17) advanced in the Assembly Labor Committee on Thursday.
Of the mandates proposed in the bill, employers will be forced to:
- Remove a job posting when a position has been filled within two weeks.
- Provide a timeframe in the job posting as to when the position is anticipated to be filled.
- Provide the applicant, during the interview process, a timeframe set forth for filling the position, with an affirmative response as to whether the position has been filled and whether the employer is still considering the applicant for the position.
“Compliance with this legislation is impractical for most businesses in the State,” NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Elissa Frank said in written testimony to the committee.
“Our members have shared that it would be extraordinarily difficult to comply with this legislation given its sheer impracticality, vagueness, and costs.”
Frank said the provision to remove a job posting when a position has been filled within two weeks “does not account for larger employers proactively hiring for positions with high turnover (i.e., cashiers, cleaning staff, night crew).”
“To hire for these positions, many of which are open indefinitely, our members may have over 1,000 job postings on any given day,” Frank said. “Thus, it would not be practical for businesses – or helpful to applicants – to mandate that employers remove each job posting only to replace it with an identical job posting.”
As it relates to providing timelines for when a position is to be filled, Frank said those intervals are often “unpredictable” for employers given the number of qualified applicants, if an offer is accepted, and the length of time to get candidates through the hiring process.
Frank added that some businesses have a high volume of continuously open positions, and it would be difficult and costly to ensure compliance by notifying each applicant of the status of a job opening.
“New Jersey does not need to become an outlier on yet another labor mandate when we are already making it as challenging and costly as possible to run a business in the state,” Frank said.
To see Frank’s full written testimony, click here.
