On April 1, 2020, the Paid Emergency Sick Leave Act Law became law. The Act provides sick time to employees who are unable to work due to Covid 19 related illness.
Sick time is to be paid to an employee if one of the following occurs:
(1) An employee experiencing symptoms of Covid 19 and is seeking medical diagnosis;
(2) An employee is in Quarantine or isolation due to Covid 19 infection;
(3) Self Quarantine is ordered by a health care provider;
(4) An employee is caring for a child due to the school of child care closure due to Covid 19.
(5) An employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of Labor.
Who Does The Sick Leave Act Apply To?
The Sick Leave Act applies to private or public sector employers with less than 500 employees. There is also an option for employers with less than 50 employees to apply for an exemption from the Department of Labor. The standard for applying for the exemption is if compliance will jeopardize the viability of the business as an on-going concern. The Department of Labor has released some guidelines for the latter provision.
What Benefits are Paid?
An employee can use existing sick leave benefits instead of the sick leave benefits provided by this new Act but cannot be forced to use their existing sick leave benefits. If the employee opts for the new Act benefits then a Full-Time employee is entitled to up to 80 hours of sick time leave. In effect, two weeks of sick leave. A Part-Time employee is entitled to 2/3’s of the amount of their usual pay.
The paid sick time cannot exceed the following amounts:
$511.00 per day to a maximum of $5,110.00 for reasons (1), or (2) listed above.
200.00 per day to a maximum of $2,000.00 for reasons (3), (4), and (5) listed above.
Under the Act, Employers will receive a tax credit for payments made to employees so that is good news for employers.
For more information on the Family First Sick Leave Act please click here. For More information on your rights related to receiving Workers Compensation in lieu of sick leave, please click here.
In September 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law legislation that created a rebuttable presumption for “essential workers” that if they get sick with Covid-19 (also known as Coronavirus) that the Covid-19 was acquired at work. Before this new law, an essential worker would have to prove that they acquired the Coronavirus was contracted at work. Since the virus travels through the air and does not immediately show symptoms of infection, it would be difficult, if not impossible to establish without extensive and expensive litigation that the virus was acquired at work.
As previously reported by NJAccident.com, Governor Murphy and the Legislature passed in 2019 (pre-Covid 19) the Thomas Canzanella 21st Century First Responders Act (hereinafter First Responders Act) which provides public safety workers, as defined by the statute, a presumption that if the worker contracts a serious communicable disease or related illness, like COVID 19 Coronovirus, that it is deemed by law to be related to their job. This is a crucial designation that opens up the right to obtain Workers Compensation benefits which include temporary disability benefits, payment of medical bills, and a monetary award based on a percentage of permanency due to the virus. The First Responders Act did not however provide protections for grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, restaurant workers, gas station workers, delivery personnel, and financial institutions or bank workers. These workers although deemed “essential workers” by the Governor were not currently contained within the definition of “Public safety workers” in the First Responders Act. The September 2020 law establishing a rebuttable presumption in effect extended New Jersey Workers Compensation benefits to all “essential workers”. Employers can however deny the claim if it believes it has evidence provable by a preponderance of the evidence (more than fifty percent) by showing that the worker was exposed outside of work. The burden in essence has been shifted onto the Employer (in effect its Workers Insurance Carrier) to establish the worker was exposed outside of work. Proving the same by a preponderance of the evidence is not exactly an easy task. Both Business and Insurance Companies lobbied against the bill but ultimately did not prevail.
Are You An Essential Worker?
An Essential worker is defined by the new legislation as:
(1) Public safety workers or first responders ;
(2) Those involved in providing medical and other healthcare services, emergency transportation, social services, and other care services, including services provided in health care facilities, residential facilities, or homes;
(3) Those who perform functions which involve physical proximity to members of the public and are essential to the public’s health, safety, and welfare, including transportation services, hotel, and other residential services, financial services, and the production, preparation, storage, sale, and distribution of essential goods such as food, beverages, medicine, fuel, and supplies for conducting essential business and work at home, or;
(4) Anyone deemed an essential employee by the public authority declaring the state of emergency
The definition of who is an essential worker is broad so if you were working during the height of the Covid 19 pandemic as allowed by the Governor’s Definition of “essential worker” you are covered.
What Benefits Are Available?
New Jersey Worker Compensation Benefits provide temporary disability benefits, payment of medical bills, and a monetary award based on a percentage of permanency due to the virus. Also in case of death related to work, New Jersey Workers Compensation law provides a Dependency Benefit to surviving spouse and minor children. The law was made retroactive to March 9, 2020 therefore an essential worker who contracted Covid 19 and subsequently passed away would be entitled to a Dependency benefit from workers compensation. It is not clear whether insurance carriers are going to educate their clients (employers) that Dependency benefits may be available to employees who passed away after acquiring Covid 19.
If you know of someone who lost their loved one due to Covid 19 and fits within the essential worker definition, you might want to advise them to contact an attorney who specializes in Workers Compensation claims to file an action in the Workers Compensation Court to obtain those benefits. A free consultation is available to discuss your case by completing our contact form and/or calling (973) 481-4364 to discuss your or your deceased relative’s case with an attorney.
For information on the Family First Paid Sick Leave Law in New Jersey, click here.
As the Covid 19 Coronavirus spread in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy deemed in Executive Orders certain individuals as essential workers. Those essential workers went beyond public safety workers and included individuals who worked in grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, gas stations, delivery personnel, and financial institutions including banks. As previously pointed out in an article on NJAccident.com, the definition of public safety workers did not include grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, restaurant workers, gas station workers, delivery personnel, and financial institutions or bank workers. These workers although deemed “essential workers” were not contained within the definition of “Public safety workers”. The Legislature after several months of negotiations and opposition from insurance carriers recently passed an amendment extending protections currently provided to Public Safety Workers to essential workers. The Governor has not signed the law as of August 8, 2020.
When someone suffers a work accident, their income may be significantly reduced. New Jersey Workers Compensation insurance provides three fundamental benefits, medical treatment, temporary disability benefits, and a permanency award. The medical treatment is limited to authorized (designated) medical professionals except for emergency care and if the employer (or insurance carrier) fails to designate a treating doctor or denies the occurrence of the accident. Temporary benefits are 70% of an injured worker’s Gross Salary but are capped at maximum rates depending on the year of the accident. Permanency benefits are normally only awarded after treatment is completed and a 26 week waiting period and permanency examinations are conducted and a settlement agreement reached or a trial conducted and a judicial decision rendered. So, if the injured worker was making significantly more than the maximum temporary disability rate, there may be a need to file for Bankruptcy protection.
Bankruptcy exists to provide individuals with a fresh start by eliminating debt. The Bankruptcy proceeding is a serious undertaking conducted in Federal Court and under the watchful eye of a Bankruptcy Trustee whose job is to ensure that creditor rights are protected by discovering all assets of the Bankruptcy applicant that could be used to pay creditors. A consultation with an attorney who handles Bankruptcy matters is essential to a smooth bankruptcy proceeding.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued an Executive Order in March which made grocery stores, delivery personnel, and others, Essential Workers which required them to continue working at their jobs. For Grocery workers and delivery personnel having a job was good news because many of their friends and neighbors were being laid off because of the State’s Stay At Home policy designed to slow the exponential spread of Covid 19 corona virus and prevent Hospitals from being overwhelmed by Covid 19 patients.
After the Federal Government provided an additional $600.00 per week in Unemployment benefits as part of a stimulus package, staying home did not seem so bad especially for grocery workers who were on the frontline and being exposed to frantic shoppers wanting to make sure they stocked up on groceries. Delivery personnel were not dealing as directly with customers but they were also exposed to cardboard boxes and plastic containers which have been identified as potential carriers of Covid 19 corona virus. Working under nerve-racking conditions the Grocery store and delivery personnel continued to do their jobs.
As previously reported on NJAccident.com, the New Jersey Legislature fortuitous passed the Thomas P. Canzanella First Responder Protection Act last July (2019), which provided Public Safety Workers with a presumption of compensability for among other things viral epidemics. The law makes it easier for Public Safety Workers which include police, fire, Emergency Medical Technicians, nurses, and doctors to obtain Workers Compensation benefits if they contract the Covid 19 corona virus.
What Benefits Are There Under NJ Workers Compensation Law
Governor Phil Murphy deemed in Executive Orders certain individuals as essential workers. Those essential workers went beyond public safety workers and included individuals who work in grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, gas stations, delivery personnel and financial institutions including banks. Last year, the New Jersey Legislature passed the Thomas Canzanella 21st Century First Responders Act (hereinafter First Responders Act) which provides public safety workers, as defined by the statute, a presumption that if the worker contracts a serious communicable disease or related illness, like COVID 19 Coronovirus, that it is deemed by law to be related to their job. This is a crucial designation that opens up the right to obtain Workers Compensation benefits which include temporary disability benefits, payment of medical bills, and a monetary award based on a percentage of permanency due to the virus.
As currently defined, public safety workers do not include grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, restaurant workers, gas station workers, delivery personnel, and financial institutions or bank workers. These workers although deemed “essential workers” are not currently contained within the definition of “Public safety workers” in the First Responders Act.
What does this mean for Essential Workers?
The current New Jersey version of the First Responders Act does not provide the presumption to all essential workers. The current version provides the presumption that its related to their job if you are a police or fire department worker, correction facility officer or employee, EMT, nurse, or advanced medical technicians.
All other “essential workers” could potentially be entitled to benefits under the state’s workers’ compensation law but without the presumption, in place, the worker would have to establish a connection between the employment and the illness. It is not an insurmountable burden but workers compensation insurance carriers are more likely to deny the claim on the onset and make the essential service worker prove that their illness “arose out of or in the course of their employment.” Since the Coronavirus COVID 19 can infect a person outside of work and can be acquired from an asymptomatic person, the advantage goes to the workers’ compensation carrier defending a claim who can point to such medical evidence and even if there are other co-workers infected with COVID 19 Coronavirus, a denial can be justified as not being in bad faith.
Occupational Injury Cases A Possible Avenue to Benefits
