Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed the Worker Retention Bill, which establishes employment protections for service workers when a business changes hands or changes contracts with its service worker employers. The aim of the measure is to help workers avoid termination during the transition.
The new law will allow workers to stay on board for at least 60 days with the new employer and will require a 15-day notice before a service contract can be ended. More than 50,000 service workers are expected to be impacted.
New Jersey now becomes the second state in the U.S. with worker retention policies, according to the service workers union 32BJ.
“It’s designed to protect workers, and specifically the lowest paid — security guards, janitors, people who work in buildings to keep them clean,” said bill sponsor Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic). “They’re most often the least paid, and this bill protects them so that when a building at which they’re working is sold from one group to another, they’re not left out in the cold.”
