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On April 14, 2020, Gov. Phil Murphy signed <a href="https://legiscan.com/NJ/text/S2374/2020">legislation (S2374)</a> to expand the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA). The basic idea behind it is to ensure that eligible employees who need to take time off to care for a family member during the COVID-19 outbreak (and other similar health epidemics) can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave in any 24-month period without losing their jobs.

Under the expanded New Jersey law, eligible employees may take leave from work during a state of emergency declared by the governor or indicated by the commissioner of health or other public health authority, an epidemic of a communicable disease, a known or suspected exposure to the communicable disease, or efforts to prevent spread of a communicable disease in order to (a) provide in-home care or treatment of a child because the child’s school or place of care is closed by order of a public official due to the epidemic or other public health emergency or (b) to care for a quarantined family member under certain circumstances.

Where leave is for an epidemic of a communicable disease, a known or suspected exposure to the communicable disease, or efforts to prevent spread of the communicable disease, employers can require certification from employees. Specifically:
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[F]or leave taken to provide in-home care or treatment of a child due to the closure of the school or place of care of the child of the employee, by order of a public official due to the epidemic or other public health emergency, employers can require the certification to include the date on which the closure of the school or place of care of the child of the employee commenced and the reason for such closure.</li>
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[F]or leave taken due to a public health authority’s issuance of a determination requiring or imposing responsive or prophylactic measures as a result of illness caused by an epidemic of a communicable disease or known or suspected exposure to the communicable disease because the presence in the community of a family member in need of care by the employee would jeopardize the health of others, employers can require the certification to include the date of issuance of the determination and the probable duration of the determination.</li>
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[F]or leave taken because a health care provider or public health authority recommends that a family member in need of care by the employee voluntarily undergo self-quarantine as a result of suspected exposure to a communicable disease because the presence in the community of that family member in need of care by the employee would jeopardize the health of others, employers can require the certification to include the date of the recommendation, the probable duration of the condition, and the medical or other facts within the healthcare provider’s or public health authority’s knowledge regarding the condition.</li>
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Leave taken for these reasons may be taken intermittently if (1) the employee provides the employer with prior notice of the leave as soon as practicable and (2) the employee makes a reasonable effort to schedule the leave so as not to unduly disrupt the operations of the employer and, if possible, to provide the employer, prior to the commencement of the intermittent leave, with a regular schedule of the day or days of the week on which the intermittent leave will be taken.

Finally, the bill makes technical corrections to provisions of the Temporary Disability Benefits Law that were amended last month. Notably, the law now provides disability benefits during a state of emergency declared by the governor or indicated by the commissioner of health or other public health authority for an illness caused by an epidemic of a communicable disease, a known or suspected exposure to the communicable disease, or efforts to prevent spread of the communicable disease, which requires in-home care or treatment of the employee or the employee’s family member due to (i) the issuance by a healthcare provider or the commissioner or other public health authority of a determination that the presence in the community of the employee may jeopardize the health of others and (ii) the recommendation, direction or order of the provider or authority that the employee be isolated or quarantined as a result of suspected exposure to a communicable disease. The bill also removes the seven-day waiting period for employees to receive disability benefits for these reasons.

These new changes take effect immediately and are retroactive to March 25, 2020.

New Jersey’s Expansion of Family Leave for COVID-19