ASSEMBLY LABOR COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 5022
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: FEBRUARY 20, 2025
The Assembly Labor Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 5022.
As amended, this bill requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development to establish by rule a heat stress standard that contains the following:
(1) a standard that establishes heat stress levels for employees that, if exceeded, trigger actions by employers to protect employees from heat-related illness and injury; and
(2) a requirement that each employer develop, implement, and maintain an effective heat-related illness and injury prevention plan for employees. The commissioner is required to develop a model heat-related illness and injury prevention plan, consistent with the provisions of the bill, that employers may adopt. Employers may develop their own heat-related illness and injury prevention plan consistent with the provisions of the bill.
The heat-related illness and injury prevention plan is required, to the extent permitted by federal law, to be developed and implemented with the meaningful participation of employees and employee representatives, including collective bargaining representatives; will be tailored and specific to the hazards in the place of employment; will be in writing in both English and in the language that each employee understands, if that language is not English; and will be made available at a time and in a manner set forth by the commissioner in rule, to employees, employee representatives, including collective bargaining representatives, and to the commissioner.
The bill provides that the commissioner may issue a stop-work order against the employer requiring cessation of all business operations of the employer at one or more worksites or across all of the employer’s worksites and places of business if the commissioner determines, after either an initial determination as a result of an audit of a business or an investigation pursuant to the bill, that an employer is in violation of the bill’s provisions.
Under the bill, after initially creating a heat-related illness and injury prevention plan, employers will be required to conduct an annual review to determine whether revisions to their plans are necessary.
The bill requires that State law align with federal law should a federal law or regulation establish a heat stress standard that is more favorable to employees than State law.
The bill exempts amusement parks and certain operations that are directly involved in the protection of life or property, such as evacuation, rescue, medical, structural firefighting, law enforcement, lifeguarding, or the emergency restoration of essential services, such as roads, bridges, utilities, and communications, when employees are engaged in those operations, from the bill’s provisions.
The bill addresses its application to collective bargaining agreements, including, but not limited to, circumstances in which the heat standards do not apply to certain collective bargaining agreements.
The bill provides the Department of Agriculture with the power to develop a heat standard for commercial farm operators in consultation with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and Department of Health and with advice and input from the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University, and the bill otherwise excludes commercial farms from its requirements.
Finally, the bill imposes monetary and other penalties for violations of its provisions.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amended the bill to make technical corrections, including:
(1) clarifying that the commissioner may impose certain penalties as an alternative or in addition to other penalties provided by the bill;
(2) updating language in the findings and declarations;
(3) clarifying the statute of limitations is six years, except that an employee has one year to file a retaliation claim; and
(4) clarifying language in the bill addressing the effective date.