PAID FAMILY LEAVE BECOMES LAW

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assembly members Nelson Albano, Sheila Oliver, Linda Greenstein, and Wayne DeAngelo sponsored to provide workers across the state access to up to six weeks paid benefits when taking leave from their jobs to care for a pressing family need was signed into law today by Governor Jon S. Corzine.

"No hard-working New Jerseyan should ever be forced to decide between putting food on the table or caring for a sick family member or new baby," said Albano (D-Cumberland/Atlantic/Cape May).  "It is only proper for the state to protect a worker's ability to take precious time off to take care of their highest priority - their family."

The new law will extend the state's existing temporary disability insurance (TDI) system to provide up to six weeks' benefits to care for a family member unable to care for themselves, including sick family members and newborn and newly adopted children. The maximum benefit that could currently be accrued by any employee over that period would be approximately $3,100.

Workers will have access to the benefit beginning July 1, 2009.

"Paid leave is among the most family-friendly policies we can provide New Jersey's working families," said Oliver (D-Essex). "We cannot be so inflexible as to prevent employees facing a family crisis from having access to a modest benefit that can keep them financially stable."

An employer can require an employee wishing to receive the benefit to first exhaust up to two weeks' unused vacation, sick, or other personal time; any personal time used would count against the maximum six weeks allowable benefit and would run concurrently with rights provided under the state Family Leave Act and the federal Family Medical Leave Act, which allow up to 12 weeks unpaid leave. Employees would be required to provide employers with ample notice, when possible. A worker could receive the paid benefit only once in any given 12-month period.

The cost of providing the benefit will be shouldered entirely by employees through an approximately $33 per-year increase in the TDI payroll deduction.

"Paid family leave simply is an issue whose time has come," said Greenstein (D-Middlesex/Mercer). "Too many New Jerseyans already find it hard to balance the needs of both their jobs and their families. This bill will ensure that when an emergency arises, family needs always will take precedence."

According to a December 2006 Rutgers University/Eagleton Center poll, 78 percent of respondents supported paid family leave.

"New Jerseyans support paid family leave because they realize that their friends and neighbors should never be forced to quit their jobs and accept unemployment to tend to an urgent family need," said DeAngelo (D-Mercer/Middlesex). "Providing a paid family leave benefit is the right thing for New Jersey to do to protect hard-working families."

The measure (S-786/A-873) also contains language clarifying the Legislature's intent to shield small businesses from litigation by stating that the provisions of the law will not provide any additional entitlements to be restored by an employer.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development estimates that roughly 38,000 of the state's 4.1 million-member workforce would take advantage of the benefit.

New Jersey becomes only the third state in the nation to implement such a worker-friendly law. California is the only state that currently offers a paid leave benefit to workers; a similar program in Washington State will start-up later in 2008. In California, 87 percent of claims were for workers taking time off to care for a newborn; 80 percent of claimants were women.

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