WARNing for New Jersey Employers
In December, 2007 New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed into law the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, or "NJ WARN" for short. The law went into effect immediately.
NJ WARN is modeled after the federal Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers to provide advance notice to employees scheduled to be terminated in large-scale layoffs. However, there are important differences between the New Jersey and federal laws, including new types of applicable events and fewer exceptions and exclusions. Also, damages under NJ WARN are more severe than under federal law.
What Triggers a WARN Notice
NJ WARN requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to provide at least 60 daysí notice of any "mass layoff", "transfer of operations", or "termination of operations." If the federal WARN notice period is ever increased, NJ WARN will automatically adopt the longer notice period.
- A mass layoff is "a reduction in force which results in the termination of employment at an establishment during any 30-day period for 500 or more full-time employees or for 50 or more of the full-time employees representing one third or more of the full-time employees at the establishment"
- A transfer of operations is defined as "the permanent or temporary transfer of a single establishment, or one or more facilities or operating units within a single establishment, to another location"
- Termination of operations means "the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single establishment, or of one or more facilities or operating units within a single establishment"
Who Gets the Notice
NJ WARN notices must be sent to the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development (currently David J. Socolow, Office of the Commissioner, 1 John Fitch Way, P.O. Box 110, Trenton, NJ 08625-0110), the chief elected official of the municipality where the establishment is located, each employee whose employment is to be terminated, and any collective bargaining units.
Whatís in the Notice
The content of the NJ WARN notice is more extensive than that required under the federal WARN Act. It must include:
- The number of employees whose employment will be terminated and the date(s) of the layoff{s)
- The reasons for the layoff, transfer, or termination of operations
- A listing of employment available to employees at other establishments operated by the employer
- A statement of employee rights with respect to wages, severance pay, benefits, pension or other terms of employment as they relate to the termination
- The amount of severance pay, if applicable
- A statement of employeesí right to receive information and aid from a state "response team."
The New Jersey Commissioner of Labor is developing a notice form for employers to use that will be issued in March, 2008.
Penalties Increase
Under federal WARN regulations, if an employer fails to provide an employee with the required notification, the employer must pay the employee 1 day of pay and benefits for each day the employer failed to provide notice.
However, under NJ WARN, an employer even a single day late in providing required notice must pay each affected employee "severance pay equal to one week of pay for each full year of employment." A one-year employee would receive a weekís pay, a five year-employee would receive five weeksí pay, etc. The rate of severance is calculated as the higher of the employeeís average rate of compensation over the past 3 years or his/her the final rate of compensation.
For More Information
New Jersey employers considering reductions in force, transfers, or operation closures should pay close attention to this new law. Please call Extensis Human Resources at 888.473.6398 or e-mail hr@extensisnj.com with any questions.
The complete text of NJ WARN may be found here.