SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 723

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 14, 2023

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 723 (1R).

      As amended, this bill creates various rights and employment protections for domestic workers.  The bill:

      1.   removes the exclusion of domestic workers from the "Law Against Discrimination," P.L.1945, c.169 (C.10:5-1 et seq.) and the "New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law," P.L.1966, c.113 (C.34:11-56a et seq.);

      2.   prohibits employers from keeping original copies of personal documents of domestic workers and from making certain intrusions against the privacy rights to domestic workers;

      3.   requires the employer or hiring entity to enter into a written contract with the domestic worker and prohibits the contract from including non-disclosure provisions, restrictive covenants, or mandatory arbitration provisions;

      4.   sets requirements for uninterrupted rest and meal break times;

      5.   limits to six the number of consecutive days an employer may require a “live-in” domestic worker to work;

      6.   requires employers to provide domestic workers with a notification of their rights under the bill;

      7.   establishes penalties for violations of its provisions, including penalties against retaliation by the employer or hiring entity; and

      8.   provides standards for on-duty breaks.

      As amended, the bill defines domestic workers as hourly and salaried employees, full-time and part-time individuals, and temporary individuals, each one of whom works for one or more employers, and works in residence caring for a child; serving as a companion or caretaker for a sick, convalescing, elderly, or disabled person; housekeeping or house cleaning; cooking; providing food or butler service; parking cars; cleaning laundry; gardening; personal organizing; or for any other domestic service purpose.  As amended, the bill’s definition of domestic worker excludes any individual providing care services for a family member of the individual; an individual primarily engaged in house sitting, pet sitting, or dog walking; an individual working at a business operating out of a residence; an individual whose primary work involves house repair or maintenance; a home health care aide paid through Medicare or Medicaid; an individual who is a kinship legal guardian of a child, and an individual participating in the Kinship Navigator Program.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      (1) specify that if a domestic worker declines to be rehired to a position or resigns from a position, the rebuttable presumption of retaliation if the hiring entity or any other person takes an adverse action against a domestic worker within 90 calendar days of the worker’s exercise of rights under the bill shall not apply;

      (2) remove language that amended the definition of casual employment in the workers’ compensation law;

      (3) add a definition of significant misconduct to the section requiring notice of termination of employment, except in cases of significant misconduct;

      (4) provide that the employer notification requirements for termination do not apply if:

      (a) a domestic worker completes placement in a particular position and is not immediately placed or scheduled for another position by an employer if the employer is a temporary help service firm, employment agency, or other staffing or placement agency, but the domestic worker remains on the employer’s payroll for future placement opportunities; or

      (b) a domestic worker is employed by an employer that is an individual, whether or not the employer is the person receiving care from the domestic worker, and the domestic worker completes or fulfills all duties of the position, and there is no longer a practicable need for the position, including but not limited to, if the domestic worker’s employer is an individual who has employed the domestic worker to care a person who is terminally ill person, and the terminally ill person passes away;

      (5)  provide standards for “on-duty” breaks;

      (6)  eliminate references to independent contractors and any other category that is not an employee;

      (7)  remove the establishment of the Domestic Workers Standards and Implementation Board;

      (8)  change certain definitions in the bill;

      (9)  remove the exception for minors under the definition of domestic worker in the bill; and

      (10)      make technical corrections.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      Fiscal information for this bill is currently unavailable.