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Legal Alert |
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New Jersey Issues New Mandatory Notice That Must Be Provided to All Employees and Posted in the Workplace
**Immediate Action Required**
On November 7, 2011, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDLWD) issued a new, six-page "notice" that all New Jersey employers must:
1. By November 7, 2011, conspicuously post the notice and distribute it to any New Jersey employee hired on or after November 7, 2011.
2. By December 7, 2011, distribute it to all current New Jersey employees who were hired prior to November 7, 2011. We recommend that you do not wait until December 7 to do so.
The new notice, which is required by Section 4 of New Jersey Law 2009, chapter 194, explains to employees the employer's obligation to maintain and file records regarding wages, benefits, taxes, and other contributions and assessments under the following eight New Jersey laws: Wage Payment Law, Wage and Hour Law, Prevailing Wage Act, Unemployment Compensation Law, Temporary Disability Benefits Law, Family Leave Insurance Benefits Law, Workers' Compensation Law, and Gross Income Tax Act. Employers should immediately and carefully review the notice to make sure they are in full compliance with the five pages of enumerated obligations.
The final page of the notice provides employees with contact information for the NJDLWD and the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, so that they can "provide information to or file a complaint with [these agencies] regarding an employer's possible failure to meet any of the requirements set forth" in the notice.
The new notice, referred to Poster MW-400, is available for download from the NJDLWD's Employer Poster Packet web page (select "Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements under State Wage, Benefit and Tax Laws"). The notice was issued as part of the NJDLWD's adoption of a new regulation, N.J.A.C. 12:2-1.1 to 12:2-1.3.
The new regulation permits electronic posting and distribution: Posting: If an employer has an internet or intranet site for the exclusive use by its employees and to which all employees have access, posting of the notice on that site will satisfy the posting requirement. Distribution: The notice may be distributed by e-mail to employees. Note that with respect to new hires, it may easier to just include a hard copy of the notice in the new employee hire package.* Please note that this new notice does not replace any of the posters already required by New Jersey law, most of which cannot be posted electronically. If you select electronic posting for those notices that you are allowed to post electronically, we still recommend that you also conspicuously post them physically, in each of your facilities, on the wall where you normally post state and federal posters. *New Jersey employers with 10 or more employees must annually provide, in English and Spanish, a copy of the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA or "Whistleblower Act") notice to all of its New Jersey employees. An employer may want to consider providing a copy of the CEPA notice to new employees as part of the new employee hire package. The CEPA notice is available for download from the NJDLWD's Employer Poster Packet web page (select "CEPA (WhistleBlower)").
Questions?
If you have any questions about this new notice, please contact Christine Michelle Duffy, Esq., in the Partnership's Parsippany, NJ office, at (973) 240-6955 x303.
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Pro Bono Partnership
www.probonopartnership.org
The Pro Bono Partnership provides business and transactional legal services to nonprofit organizations serving the disadvantaged and enhancing the quality of life in neighborhoods throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Each year we mobilize and support hundreds of lawyers from leading corporations and law firms who volunteer their legal expertise to our clients, enabling them to more effectively feed the hungry, house the homeless, promote the arts, protect the environment and provide essential programs to children, the elderly, immigrants, the disabled and the unemployed.
The information contained in this publication should not be construed as legal advice. For questions regarding the matters discussed in this publication, or other legal matters, please contact us.
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