Leave - New Jersey

Jury duty

New Jersey law requires public sector employees to be paid for jury duty, minus any deduction for payment made by the court for jury duty.

Voting

New Jersey doesn’t have a time-off-for-voting provision.

Volunteer Emergency Responders Employment Protection Act

All New Jersey employers are prohibited from terminating, dismissing, or suspending an employee who fails to report to work because he or she served as a volunteer emergency responder during a state of emergency or is actively engaged in responding to an emergency alarm.

Such time off need not be paid; however, employees may substitute earned vacation or sick days, if available.

Employees must provide notice at least one hour before their scheduled work reporting time that they are rendering emergency services.

Upon return to work, the employee is to provide a copy of the incident report and a certification by the incident commander or other official or officer in charge affirming that the employee was actively engaged in emergency services. This should also include the date and time the employee was relieved from emergency duty.

If the employee is absent for more than one work day, the employer is to be given notice each day of the absence.

These provisions need not apply to “essential” employees. These are generally employees that need to report to or stay at work to continue company operations during emergencies.

Security and Financial Empowerment (SAFE) Act

Employers with 25 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year must allow eligible employees time off if the employee or a family member is a victim of domestic or sexual violence.

Employees are eligible for leave under the SAFE Act if they have been employed for at least 12 months and worked at least 1,000 hours in the preceding 12 months. Eligible employees are entitled to take up to 20 days of leave within a 12-month period beginning when an employee first takes leave.

Eligible employees may take leave under the SAFE Act for the following reasons:

• To seek medical attention for, or recover from, physical or psychological injuries caused by domestic or sexual violence to the employee or the employee’s child, parent, parent in-law, spouse, domestic partner, or civil union partner, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, any other blood relative, or any individual the employee shows to have a close association with equivalent to a family relationship;
• To obtain services from a victim services organization;
• To obtain counseling;
• To participate in safety planning, temporarily or permanently relocate, or take other safety actions;
• To seek legal assistance or remedies to ensure health and safety; or
• To attend, participate in, or prepare for criminal or civil court proceedings.

Employees may elect to substitute accrued paid leave, or an employer may require such a substitution. Employees taking SAFE leave are eligible for income benefits from the state, similar to that under NJFLI leave.

If the need for leave is foreseeable, employees are to give advance written notice of the need for leave.

Employers may require that employees provide documentation supporting the domestic violence or sexually violent offense on which the leave is based. Sufficient documentation includes one or more of the following:

• A domestic violence restraining order or other documentation of equitable relief issued by a court of competent jurisdiction;
• A letter or other written documentation from the county or municipal prosecutor documenting the domestic violence or sexually violent offense;
• Documentation of the conviction of a person for the domestic violence or sexually violent offense;
• Medical documentation of the domestic violence or sexually violent offense;
• Certification from a certified domestic violence specialist or the director of a designated domestic violence agency or rape crisis center that the employee or family member is a victim; or
• Other documentation or certification of the domestic violence or sexually violent offense provided by a social worker, member of the clergy, shelter worker, or other professional who has assisted the employee or family member in dealing with the domestic violence or sexually violent offenses.

Employers are to post a notice of the rights and obligations of the law.