The New Jersey Business & Industry Association has joined a lawsuit filed against the state of New Jersey that seeks to declare a recently enacted Temporary Worker law as unconstitutional.
The New Jersey Staffing Alliance filed the lawsuit in federal court on May 5 and it contends the law, which was signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in February after months of fits and starts in the Legislature, represents an existential threat to New Jersey’s staffing industry.
The American Staffing Association also joined NJBIA as plaintiffs. A copy of the lawsuit can be found here.
“The amount of time and labor that will be spent with regard to compliance with this legislation will in all probability be cost prohibitive and ultimately destroy the temporary staffing industry in New Jersey,” according to the lawsuit.
In opposing the bill, NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Alexis Bailey said that while well intended, its lack of balance and increased burdens would crush legitimate New Jersey staffing agencies – and ultimately take away opportunities from the temp workers it aims to protect.
A provision in the law that requires temporary workers to be paid the average compensation rate and the cash equivalent of the average cost of benefits paid to their employee counterparts, Bailey called “unworkable.”
According to the lawsuit, that provision: “in and of itself can bring the temporary staffing industry in New Jersey to a halt.”
“(It) requires and assumes significant cooperation to be provided by the third-party client, and this provision assumes that the third-party client is willing to share its pay scale information with the temporary staffing agency. Those assumptions are not accurate.”
A hearing has been set for June 13 regarding a request for a temporary restraining order, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Harz.
If granted, the order would prevent the law from going into effect.
Harz noted that many provisions of the law are extremely vague and violate the Dormant Commerce clause and Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives only the U.S. Congress the right to oversee interstate commerce. The plaintiffs contend the New Jersey law would touch on interstate commerce because it would impact staffing firms doing business in other states.
