A Senate committee on Monday voted to amend and advance bills, opposed by NJBIA, that would impact some small employers under the paid family leave law by requiring them to also provide job protection to employees who take up to 12 weeks of family leave.
As originally written, A-3451/S-2950 would have changed existing law by lowering the current employee threshold used to determine if a business must provide job reinstatement from 30 to five. The Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee voted 8-5 vote make the legislation slightly less onerous to very small businesses by changing the employee threshold to 15.
"Although we appreciate the sponsors working with the small business community and raising the employee threshold for job protection to 15, this is still a bill that will challenge our smaller employers and it still puts New Jersey, once again, in an anti-business outlier status compared to what other states need to offer regarding paid family leave," said NJBIA Chief Government Affairs Officer Christopher Emigholz.
Two weeks earlier, the Senate Labor Committee opted not to hold a scheduled vote on the original legislation expanding small employers’ obligations under the paid family leave law. The bill was then transferred to the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee.
Emigholz noted that small employers are not in the same position as large employers are to provide job-protection coverage after a worker’s prolonged absence.
“Under this expanded family leave bill, small employers would be required to not only protect a worker’s job, no matter what their performance level, but ensure that they come back to the same exact position they left before going on leave,” Emigholz said.
“If an employee doesn’t return to that same job, they would have a right to sue their employer under the bill. Those litigation costs would come at a time when small businesses are already challenged by increased wage costs, supply costs, and energy costs. It isn’t right.”
Emigholz said small businesses should be able to retain the right to make worker decisions that are best for the survival and prosperity of their business.
“Think about the current employee for a small business who steps up for the person going out on expanded leave and shows they can handle job responsibilities better than the person who went out on leave,” Emigholz said.
“What if that temp worker you were just required to spend all this added money on to train turns out to be a far more productive or effective worker than the person taking leave?” Emigholz asked. “Shouldn’t that employer not have the right to make that determination? This bill effectively says ‘no.’”
In 2008, Gov. Jon Corzine signed the New Jersey Family Leave Act that struck a balance between worker protections and credible business concerns, based on months of negotiation between lawmakers.
Emigholz said this bill threatens that compromise amid even more cost challenges for New Jersey’s smallest employers.
– This story was revised at 5:45 p.m. after the committee vote.
