Earlier this year, Governor Murphy signed a temporary workers’ bill of rights into law.  This law is intended to help stop the abuse of labor rights for temporary workers.  As it stands now, the protections are limited to temporary workers in specific classifications. But if you work for a staffing agency or use a staffing agency to employ temporary workers, I would recommend that you check with your counsel to see if the workers that you use are covered by this law.

One of the most significant requirements in the new law is that covered temporary workers must be paid, at least, the average rate of pay and average cost of benefits (or the cash equivalent thereof) as employees of the actual client/employer that are “performing the same or substantially similar work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skills, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions[.]” There are monetary penalties for failing to comply with this requirement.

The law also includes notice and recordkeeping requirements, limitations on transportation requirements and fees, the client’s right to offer and laborers’ right to accept permanent positions, certification requirements, surety bond requirements, as well as anti-retaliation requirements. It is a drastic change in how temporary workers have been treated in New Jersey. In light of these changes, both agencies and their clients should review their employment policies and practices, and their mutual contracts, in order to ensure compliance with the law to avoid costly penalties.