In February of 2019 Governor Murphy signed into law sweeping legislation that significantly expands employee rights to family leave entitlements, provides greater family leave insurance benefits to employees during a leave, expands the definition of \u201cfamily members,\u201d and finally, provides greater job security to individuals taking family leave. It is critical for employers to understand the multiple changes resulting from this this legislation to ensure that employee\u2019s rights are not being violated.<\/p>\n
Amendments to the New Jersey Family Leave Act:<\/strong> While most employers are aware that those with 50 or more employees are covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that accords employees 12 weeks of protected unpaid<\/em> leave for personal medical leave, or to care for a newborn\/newly adopted child or family member with a serious medical condition, many are unaware that New Jersey also has a similar Family Leave Act (NJFLA) that likewise applied to employers of 50 or more and accords 12 weeks of protected unpaid<\/em> leave to qualifying employees. However, unlike the FMLA, NJFLA leave is only available for bonding with a newborn or newly adopted child, or to care for a family member with serious medical condition; the employee has no personal medical leave rights available under the NJFLA.<\/p>\n Effective June 30, 2019, the employee headcount for coverage under the NJFLA dropped from 50 to 30 employees, taking it out of alignment with the FMLA and making many more small employers subject to the requirements of the NJFLA to provide guaranteed protected bonding and family medical leave to qualifying employees. The amendments further expanded the NJFLA to include family leave in connection with the placement of a child into foster care with the employee or the birth of a child conceived using a gestational carrier agreement; in addition, leave in connection with the birth or adoption of a child which rights were available to employees prior to the amendments.<\/p>\n