NJBIA recently held a Labor & Employment Committee Meeting with the following guest speakers:
- Tom Little (Senior Policy Analyst, Senate Majority Office)
- Alex Solomon (Senior Research Associate, Senate Republican Office)
- Stan Robinson (Chair, Union County Workforce Development Board)
- Joan Kampo (Director of Human Resources, Withum Smith + Brown)
- Karlito Almeda (Vice President, The Zita Group)
- Jack Kelly (NJBIA Policy Analyst)
- Jack Ramirez (NJBIA Policy Analyst)
Here are some excerpts from the meeting:
Tom Little on the Business Community and AI:
“We really do care about the perspective of the business community... Sometimes if you give us feedback that this is just not a great idea, then there are a lot of times we will not go forward with it.
“But even if there are laws and bills that we want to go forward with, we still want to reach out to the business community because normally there are some changes that we can make in these laws that would make it easier for businesses to comply with them, which is the goal. We just don't want to pass bills or laws that are not going to be followed.”
Alex Solomon on Independent Contractor Regulations:
“Independent contractors are one of the biggest things going on right now. It's more the perspective of the Republican caucus that if we have to do carve-outs and we have to go back and exempt industries from this, then maybe the rules that were just published and our whole independent contractor system is not working correctly.
“We need to go back and revise that and make sure that people in New Jersey are able to work how they want to work and given the flexibility to work in those ways. We should not stifle the gig economy or the other sectors of that.
“Even if your business doesn't use independent contractors, these rules, this issue affects you, because one of the biggest independent contractor industries are truckers at the port, in North Jersey.
If the cost of getting goods to where they need to go goes up because the truckers that want to be in the kind of contractors now get classified as employees. That's going to make everything that you all do more expensive.”
Jack Kelly on New Jersey’s Business Climate and Workforce Realities:
“We can't be at the same time on the one hand, the worst state in the region to do business in and we can't take away more workforce pathways through limiting independent contractor participation.
“We can't tax both the worker and the business, they're either employed by, or in a mutually beneficial relationship with, worse than any other state in the region.
“People and companies are leaving New Jersey. You had Samsung go to Texas. J&J is investing billions of dollars in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. So with the business climate that we put together and the current tax policies, it's becoming a little bit harder to do business. It's becoming a little bit harder to just be in New Jersey.”
Jack Ramirez on Defining Generative Artificial Intelligence:
“I know that there have been a lot of AI bills that have popped up and a lot of conversation around the definition for generative artificial intelligence. I know that we already have a few bills in statute that define the technology in a specific way.
“However, I've heard concerns both within the Legislature and from external partners that the definition as it currently stands isn't one that can stand the test of time.”
“The concern that at least I've heard from across the business community is that we see historic technology such as anti-fraud phone calls, appointment reminder systems, any robot voice that you have that generates audio that simulates a human but is not a human technically could fall underneath this definition.
“I'm glad to see that New Jersey is being really receptive to that and these concerns that way we don't have to go through that process of constantly saying, ‘Hey, that technology is in, that one is not.”
To join an NJBIA Policy Committees, click NJBIA’s advocacy page here and scroll down to the middle of the page.
