Almost three years after signing into law legislation significantly amending the state’s mini-WARN Act (officially known as the “Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act”) (NJ WARN), Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. 4768 on January 10, 2023, permitting the far-reaching amendments to take effect on April 10, 2023 (ninety days from signing). The effective date of the sweeping revisions had been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and on “pause” until the governor lifted the state of emergency declared in March 2020 in Executive Order 103. New Jersey legislators recently decided to “unlink” the NJ WARN revisions from the state of emergency, which remains in effect, and by signing Bill No. A4768, the governor accelerated the effective date of the NJ WARN amendments.

The major changes to NJ WARN include the following:

• Expanded notice obligations. Employers with 100 or more employees must provide at least ninety days’ advance notice to affected employees before discharging the first employee as part of a mass layoff, termination of operations, or transfer of operations. Under existing NJ WARN, only sixty days’ advance notice is required.
• Mandatory severance. Even when the required advance notice is provided, employers must provide discharged employees with “severance pay equal to one week of pay for each full year of employment.” Under existing NJ WARN, employers are required to pay severance only as a penalty if they fail to provide the...

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