Plainfield Becomes 12th New Jersey Municipality to Approve Paid Sick Leave

On March 14, 2016, Plainfield became the 12th New Jersey municipality to approve paid sick leave. The Plainfield ordinance, which will take effect on July 14, 2016, requires that, with certain exceptions, employees working in Plainfield for at least 80 hours per year accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Employers with ten or more paid employees must provide employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick time per calendar year, and employers with less than ten paid employees must provide sick time up to 24 hours, except for employees who are child care workers, home health care workers and food service workers who are entitled to up to 40 hours of paid sick time. Employees begin to accrue sick time on the first day of their employment and are entitled to begin using their accrued time on the 100th calendar day of their employment. Additionally, employees are permitted to carry over up to 40 hours of paid sick leave to the next calendar year, but employers are not required to carry over more than 40 hours. Employees may use paid sick time for the following reasons:

  • The employee’s own mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition or the employee’s need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of his/her own health condition; the employee’s need for preventative care;
  • The employee’s need to care for a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; care of a family member who needs medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a health condition; or care of a family member who needs preventive medical care;
  • The employee’s place of business is closed due to a public health emergency; or an employee’s child’s school or place of care has been closed due to a public health emergency; or to care for a family member who may have been exposed to a communicable disease.

The Plainfield ordinance also contains written notification and posting requirements. Plainfield joins the following New Jersey municipalities with paid sick time laws: Jersey City, Newark, Passaic, East Orange, Paterson, Irvington, Montclair, Trenton, Bloomfield, Elizabeth, and New Brunswick.

For questions regarding paid sick leave laws in New Jersey, please feel free to contact an attorney in the Gibbons Employment & Labor Law Department.

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