{"id":4297,"date":"2020-03-10T14:51:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T18:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=4297"},"modified":"2025-02-05T11:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T16:03:52","slug":"nj-leads-the-way-in-mandating-severance-payments-for-laid-off-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nj-leads-the-way-in-mandating-severance-payments-for-laid-off-employees.html","title":{"rendered":"NJ Leads the Way in Mandating Severance Payments for Laid-off Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For nearly two decades New Jersey employers had to comply with the notice requirements of the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), 21 U.S.C. 2100 et seq., as well as New Jersey\u2019s similar counterpart, Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act (NJ WARN Act), N.J.S.A. 34:21-2. While not identical, both statutes require New Jersey employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days\u2019 written advance notice to those employees affected by a \u201cmass layoff\u201d or \u201cplant closing\u201d or a \u201ctermination of operations\u201d or \u201ctransfer of operations\u201d as those are defined under the respective statutes. Both laws require similar notifications to designated state and local officials. A failure to provide the required 60 days\u2019 advance notice could result in liability for wages and benefits for the period for which the notice was not provided to the affected employee.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the Toys \u2018R\u2019 Us bankruptcy filing in 2017, more than 30,000 workers were laid off nationally, and approximately 2,000 in New Jersey. Initially, these employees were not provided with any severance benefits but an ensuing battle ultimately resulted in the establishment of an assistance fund to provide some monetary relief to affected employees. Critics claimed that these benefits fell far short of what these workers should have been paid.<\/p>\n<p>The Toys \u2018R\u2019 Us closures\u2019 effect upon the citizens of New Jersey did not go unnoticed by the state legislature. On Jan. 21, 2020, New Jersey amended the NJ WARN Act to become the first state to mandate employee severance payments in the event of a closure of operations or mass layoff of employees. The amendments also extend significant additional protections to New Jersey employees, making it the most progressive law of its kind in the country. The law goes into effect July 19, 2020.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nj-leads-the-way-in-mandating-severance-payments-for-laid-off-employees.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading NJ Leads the Way in Mandating Severance Payments for Laid-off Employees\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For nearly two decades New Jersey employers had to comply with the notice requirements of the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), 21 U.S.C. 2100 et seq., as well as New Jersey\u2019s similar counterpart, Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act (NJ WARN Act), N.J.S.A. 34:21-2. While not identical, both statutes require [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,247],"tags":[],"coauthors":[139],"class_list":["post-4297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-labor-employment-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NJ Leads the Way in Mandating Severance Payments for Laid-off Employees &#8212; March 10, 2020 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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