NJBIA Chief Government Affairs Officer Christopher Emigholz issued the following statement in response to passage of A-2451, which expands the Paid Family Leave law job’s protection requirement to smaller employers with 15 or more workers, instead of the law’s current employee threshold of 30.    

The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy for a decision within seven days. 

“Unfortunately, this bill is another classic example of Trenton being tone deaf to the concerns of our smallest employers.

“When one employee in a 15-person business takes paid family leave, it means 7% of a small business’ workforce is gone for 12 weeks. Unlike a larger firm that can more easily shift responsibilities among many workers, a small firm may need to hire and train a replacement worker to keep the business running.

“Under this expanded bill, many of our smallest employers will be required to not only protect a worker’s job, no matter what their performance level, but ensure that they come back to the same exact position they left before going on leave.

“If an employee doesn’t return to that same job, they would have a right to sue their employer under the bill. Those litigation costs would come at a time when small businesses are already challenged by increased wage costs, supply costs, and energy costs.

“In short, it isn’t right. It is outlier policies like this that will continue the decline of our floundering business reputation and our high unemployment.”