Tenaglia & Hunt Blog

The Mayor of Jersey City signed into law a requirement that employers operating in Jersey City must provide sick leave to their employees. It became effective January 24, 2014. If your business has 10 or more employees, 5 days of paid sick leave must be given. If there are fewer than 10 employees, 5 days of unpaid sick leave must be provided. One of the requirements of the new law is that all employers must display a notice or poster in a clearly visible location in the business. The poster must be in a language that is the language of at least 10% of the workers.

Additionally, all employees must be provided a written notice of rights to each employee, including a copy to new hires. It is important to note that the individual notice provided to employees must be given in the primary language spoken by that employee (provided that the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services has issued a translation of the notice in that language). The Department’s website currently shows “frequently asked questions”for employers and for workers in English, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish and Tagalog.

There is no set procedure required for distribution of the written notice to employee and new hires, so it appears that distributing it by email is permissible. However you decide to provide the written notice, it is essential that you keep records of your compliance with the notice requirements. In addition to hanging the poster and providing written notification, employers should also consider adding the sick leave policy to their employee handbook.

This is noteworthy because in recent years Jersey City has attracted many large financial institutions and other companies from New York City to open offices, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Cigna, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Hartz Mountain, American Express, Datek Online, and Lord, Abbett, and Co. Additionally, Forbes recently announced plans to move its headquarters from New York City to Jersey City.

If you operate your business in Jersey City or you need legal help from a business lawyer, contact Slater, Tenaglia, Fritz & Hunt.

The legal team at Slater, Tenaglia, Fritz & Hunt, P.A. consists of experienced attorneys and dedicated staff. We use advanced technology to benefit our clients. We are committed to providing aggressive representation of our clients’ rights while delivering first-class customer service. We can be contacted by phone at (201) 820-6001 in New Jersey or (212) 692-0200 in New York. We can also be found on the Internet, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and Youtube. And remember, all initial consultations are complimentary.