ASSEMBLY HOMELAND SECURITY AND STATE PREPAREDNESS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 3846

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MARCH 16, 2020

      The Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 3846.

      As reported by the committee, this bill creates “Temporary Lost Wage Unemployment Program” to allow individuals affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic to recoup actual lost wages due to absence from work under certain circumstances and to assist employers who pay wages to workers who are ordered under quarantine by a licensed healthcare practitioner as a result of coronavirus disease 2019.  Specifically, the program will provide, to the extent funds are available, monetary relief to individuals for actual lost wages in an amount that is equivalent to the individual’s average weekly rate of compensation from the past calendar year, if the individuals do not have fully paid leave.

      The Department of Labor and Workforce Development will use moneys in the fund, in an amount not to exceed $10,000,000, to pay the lost wages of individuals due to:    

      (1)  the individual’s absence from work due to the need to care for a family member;

      (2)  the individual’s absence from work due to the illness of the individual;

      (3)  the individual’s absence from work due to school or childcare facility being closed; and

      (4)  for such other purposes as determined by the commissioner.

      No moneys shall be paid to an individual for any period or wages for which the individual receives benefits pursuant the "unemployment compensation law," R.S.43:21-1 et seq.

      Moneys in the fund may be supplemented or replaced, or both, by any amounts received from the federal government for the same purposes as provided in the bill.

      Additionally, the department will use moneys in the fund, not to exceed $10,000,000, to assist employers who pay wages to workers who are ordered under quarantine by a licensed healthcare practitioner as a result of coronavirus disease 2019.

      Anyone who makes any willful misrepresentation or omission of fact in an application for moneys from the fund will be subject to a fine not exceeding $10,000.  The fines will be recoverable in a civil action by the commissioner in the name of the State of New Jersey. 

      Individuals and employers seeking relief are required to file claims no later than three months following the termination of a declaration of a state of emergency as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.