Sixteen months ago, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law Senate Bill 3170, which radically expands employers' advance notice and severance pay obligations under the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act - otherwise known as NJ WARN. Originally scheduled to go into effect on July 17, 2020, the NJ WARN amendments have been repeatedly postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the effective date most recently stood at August 13, 2021. The repeated postponements, however, are about to end. The changes are now expected to go into effect no later than September 11, 2021, and possibly earlier. This means NJ WARN will likely apply to most terminations occurring on or after September 11, 2021 - or possibly earlier.

What's happened, and why the uncertainty? On April 14, 2020, Gov. Murphy signed Senate Bill 2353, which delayed the effective date of the NJ WARN amendments to 90 days after the expiration of Gov. Murphy's Executive Order 103, which had declared a public health emergency due to COVID-19. The emergency has been extended repeatedly - but likely no longer. On Friday, May 14, 2021, the governor issued Executive Order 240, which ends the public health emergency on June 13, 2021, unless once again renewed. At the same time, his office issued a press release noting, "[I]f legislation is finalized ahead of the renewal date, the Public Health Emergency extended today will be allowed to expire," thereby signaling the anticipated end of the emergency on or before June 13, 2021. As the NJ WARN amendments become effective 90 days after the end of the public health emergency, they will likely go into effect no later than September 11, 2021. But the date could be earlier if the legislature acts to end the emergency before June 13. Regardless, we expect that in no event will the date be earlier than the most recent tentative effective date of August 13, 2021.

Finally, there is at least some possibility of a further extension of the public health emergency. The governor's statement says he is working with the state Senate and Assembly leaders on legislation to end the emergency while retaining "necessary tools to manage the ongoing threat to public health, as well as recovery and vaccination efforts." Should it take longer than expected to craft and pass such legislation, we could see an extension of the emergency public health order pending efforts to do so.

The most significant changes to New Jersey's current WARN Act include the following:

  • The amended law applies to employers with at least 100 employees, regardless of tenure or hours of work.
  • Notice is triggered by a termination of 50 employees, regardless of tenure or hours of work.
  • Terminations across the state are aggregated to determine if the threshold is met, regardless of where within the state the terminations occur.
  • Notice is increased to 90 days, not 60.
  • Severance pay is automatic (though it integrates with existing employer severance plans, policies or CBA requirements) - with additional severance due if notice is not given.
  • Employees may not waive their right to severance under the law without state or court approval.

A more detailed description of the changes can be found here, which was last updated July 27, 2020.

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