VAN DREW/JOHNSON/EGAN PLANT CLOSING BILL CLEARS SENATE

VAN DREW/JOHNSON/EGAN PLANT CLOSING BILL
 CLEARS SENATE
Measure Would Create Safeguards Against Mass Layoffs

(TRENTON) - The Senate today gave final legislative to legislation Assemblymen Jeff Van Drew, Gordon M. Johnson, and Joseph Egan sponsored to combat "take-the-money-and-run" plant closings by major corporate employers in New Jersey.

The measure (A-1044) was crafted by Van Drew in October of 2004 in the wake of aircraft engine repair and overhaul company Dallas Airmotive's decision to shutter its facility in Millville, Cumberland County.  The Dallas Airmotive plant was a major South Jersey employer, providing jobs for 240 area families.

"Unexpected closings are absolutely devastating not only to the hard-working men and women these plants employ, but to their families and our regional economies," said Van Drew (D-Cape May/ Cumberland/Atlantic).  "We must do everything in our power to create future safeguards against mass layoffs."

The Van Drew/Johnson/Egan bill would require all companies with 100 or more employees to give 60 days notice before initiating a plant closing or mass layoff.  Notice would need to be provided to the state Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, the local municipality, the employees, and their representatives.

Companies that fail to abide by the new directive would be required to provide terminated employees with one week's worth of severance pay for every year they were employed by a company.  This punitive severance pay would be in addition to any severance provided by an employer for any other reasons.

"For a displaced employee who has spent years of his or her life as part of a highly skilled workforce at one of our state's many large manufacturing plants, finding a new job that provides the same salary and benefits needed to support a family can be next to impossible," said Johnson (D-Bergen). 

Under the measure, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development would be charged with establishing a plant closing response team to provide counseling and other appropriate services to employees involved in these mass layoffs.

The Governor recommended that New Jersey use the same notification period that currently is in use in all other states--60 days. He also recommended that this notice period be automatically extended to match any extension that may be made in the notice period under federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) Act. 

"Unfortunately, plant closings sometimes cannot be avoided.  This legislation seeks to provide these employees with the time and resources they need to plan for job loss," concluded Egan (D-Middlesex/Somerset).

The Senate voted 26-11. It now heads to the Governor, who may sign it, veto it or modify it in the form of a conditional veto.

--30--