On February 6, 2023, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law Assembly Bill No. A1474 / S511,1 commonly known as the "Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights" (the "Bill of Rights"), which establishes numerous labor and employment protections for large portions of New Jersey's more than one 125,000 temporary workers.
The Bill of Rights' practical implications are far-reaching, resulting in new requirements of state registration, pay frequency and information, and recordkeeping for covered "temporary help service firms" that employ, directly or indirectly, "temporary laborers" in "designed classification placements." While compliance with these new requirements will be time-consuming and costly, the Bill of Rights' penalties provisions are steep and provide strong incentive for employers to ensure compliance.
Under this new law, "temporary help service firms"' (commonly referred to as staffing firms or temp agencies) are defined as:
any person or entity who operates a business which consists of employing individuals directly or indirectly for the purpose of assigning the employed individuals to assist the firm's customers in the handling of the customers' temporary, excess or special workloads, and who, in addition to the payment of wages or salaries to the employed individuals . . . carries workers' compensation insurance and pays federal social security and State and federal unemployment insurance taxes.
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