Paid Sick Leave Bill Signed

Governor Phil Murphy signed the Paid Sick Leave bill into law today.  The new law will:

• Pre-empt all municipal ordinances so that businesses will have to follow one uniform statewide law
• Require employers to provide 40 hours of paid sick leave per benefit year
  • Employees accrue 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked
• Permit current PTO or Paid Sick Leave policies to satisfy requirements of law
• Exempt per diem healthcare employees, construction workers employed pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement, and public employees
• Allow the use of sick leave to attend school-related events in addition to time needed for employees to care for themselves or a family member
• Permit employers to designate days whereby employees cannot use “foreseeable” paid sick leave and if “unforeseeable” leave is used on those days an employer can require documentation from the employee confirming the time was used for a purpose permitted under the Act
• Require businesses to maintain records documenting hours worked and earned sick leave used by employees and maintain the records for five years. Records must also be made available for inspection upon request by the DOL.
• Provides an anti-retaliation provision that sets forth a “rebuttable presumption” of retaliation if an adverse action is taken against an employee within 90 days of a specified protected activity (filing a complaint, cooperating in an investigation, informing others of rights under the Act, etc.)

The law will become effective on October 29, 2018.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you,

Mike

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