Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

N.J. bills tighten notices of layoffs

The legislation would let the state seek injunctions, and suspend mortgage payments of the laid-off.

New Jersey Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. (D, Burlington), wasn't backing down yesterday.

Neither was Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R., Warren).

The two members of the Assembly Labor Committee were at odds over a package of bills meant to tighten New Jersey's layoff-notification law, already among the nation's strongest.

The proposed legislation would empower the state to seek an immediate court injunction against employers who broke the law, and to suspend mortgage payments of their laid-off employees for 180 days.

The efforts, sponsored by Conaway and Assemblyman Jack Conners, grew out of concerns over the abrupt shutdown of Jevic Transportation Inc. on May 19 in Delanco, where more than 1,000 workers lost their jobs on less than a day's notice. State law requires companies of Jevic's size to provide a 60-day warning.

But the issue didn't clear the committee without a fight over the tension between keeping businesses in the state and protecting working families. The fighting is likely to continue when the bills come up for a full Assembly vote and are taken up in the Senate, where identical bills have been introduced.

Doherty objected to provisions of one bill that would suspend mortgage payments for some laid-off workers. "I just view it as a trampling on our constitution that we have here in the state of New Jersey," he said.

A law that would suspend mortgage payments would intrude on contractual obligations and penalize lenders who did nothing wrong, he said, his voice rising as he jabbed the dais with his finger.

"And this is going to be made up by more lost jobs and more businesses not coming to New Jersey because they're going to say hey, we can't trust anything these guys say."

But Conaway said workers would resume their mortgage payments after any suspension was lifted.

"This is what a caring society does," he said.

Later, he added, "I think rather than a negative message going forth that a positive message [will go] forth. . .."

The bill passed, 5-2, following concerns raised by other lawmakers and representatives of business and mortgage trade groups.

A second bill, which passed 7-2, raised additional concerns among some legislators. The bill addresses a key weakness for employees in the state's existing layoff-notification law: Enforcement depends on employees taking their employers to court - usually a lengthy process. The bill would empower the state to seek an immediate injunction stopping the company from violating the law.

But business groups and lawmakers wondered how such a law would work, particularly for companies such as Jevic, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

If passed into law, such a measure would distinguish New Jersey's layoff notification law from those of other states and the federal government.

"The bills are creative attempts to provide more meaningful protections for workers and communities facing the devastating effects of sudden mass job loss," John Philo, director of the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, which advocates stronger layoff-notification laws, said of the New Jersey measures. "State law is the incubator for ideas to address the difficult economic and social problems facing the country as a result of the current recession."

The committee unanimously approved a third bill that permits such laid-off employees to participate in a tuition-waiver program in the state's colleges.

"They are innocent folks here who have been victimized by employers who have not followed the law," Conaway said.

John Rogers, of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, also testifying, called the package of bills a work in progress, saying, "The business climate really is the number-one problem."