Employers with 100 or more employees have a more complicated, expensive path to follow before laying off groups of 50 or more employees working at or reporting into New Jersey work sites thanks to amendments to New Jersey’s WARN Act that go into effect April 10. Here are the key changes to New Jersey’s WARN Act (officially called the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act): Any time an employer plans to terminate 50 or more employees who work at or report into any facility or group of facilities within New Jersey in a 30-day period, the employer must do the following if the termination will be caused by a mass layoff (Reduction in Force ‘”RIF”]), or temporary or permanent shut down or transfer of a facility or group of facilities:
Before the law changed, large employers that gave 60 days’ notice of mass layoffs to New Jersey employees had no obligation under the NJ WARN Act to pay severance. Now, the amended law imposes severance obligations irrespective of whether the employer gives notice of the mass layoff or shutdown or not and penalizes the employer with additional severance obligations for failing to give 90 days’ notice. Another significant change is who gets counted as part of the 50 or more-employee layoff to trigger notice and severance obligations. In short all employees are counted, whether they work full-time or part-time at a New Jersey facility or a group of New Jersey facilities or work remotely or out of state but report into a New Jersey facility or group of New Jersey facilities. Under the prior version of the law, only full-time employees working on site at a single New Jersey facility or contiguous New Jersey facilities counted.
Many more employers, RIFs and workplace shutdowns are expected to be covered by the New Jersey WARN Act requirements even if the federal WARN Act requirements are not met. This chart highlights many of the changes to NJ’s WARN Act.
| Original NJ WARN Act | Amended NJ WARN Act, effective April 10, 2023 |
| Employers covered | Employers covered |
| 100 or more full time employees (PT employees not counted) | 100 or more employees (no distinction between full and PT) |
| Covered Terminations | Covered Terminations |
| Termination of either 500 or more FT Employees at an establishment or 50 or more FT Employees who comprise at least 1/3 of the FT Employees who work at an Establishment in a 30-day period due to a mass layoff (reduction in force) or temporary or permanent shut down or transfer of an establishment. | Termination of 50 or more employees (full time and part time) who work at or report to an establishment in a 30-day period due to a mass layoff (reduction in force) or temporary or permanent shut down or transfer of an establishment. This includes remote and out of state workers who report into a NJ facility and employees who work at a NJ facility. |
| Establishment | Establishment |
| One facility including a group of contiguous locations in New Jersey operated by the employer for more than 3 years. | one facility or a group of facilities operated by the employer for more than 3 years anywhere in New Jersey. |
| Exception | Exception |
| Does not apply to a voluntary departure or retirement or a discharge or suspension for misconduct of the employee connected with the employment or any layoff of a seasonal employee or to any situation in which an employer offers an employee a position with equivalent status, benefits, pay and other terms and conditions of employment at a location in NJ not more than 50 miles from the previous work site. | |
| What notice do employers have to provide of triggering termination? | What notice do employers have to provide of triggering termination? |
| 60 days’ advance notice required of mass layoff | 90 days’ advance notice required of mass layoff |
| Severance obligation: When is it triggered? | Severance obligation: When is it triggered? |
| None if 60 days’ notice of mass layoff is given to affected employees. If an employer fails to give notice, employer must pay 1 full week of pay for each full year of service | Notice is irrelevant. Severance is required. Each affected employee receives 1 week’s pay for each full year of service. An employer that fails to provide the required 90 days’ advance notice must pay each employee denied notice an additional 4 weeks of severance pay |
Fried-Grodin Employment Law will continue to cover developments with this law.
