NJ Legislature Needs to Fill the Gaps in Worker Support during COVID-19 Pandemic

Please take action NOW to email your legislators and legislative leadership to expand and strengthen worker support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Find your legislator here: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

We thank the NJ Legislature for the swift action already taken to craft and pass legislation that protects and supports NJ workers in response to the unprecedented threat of the coronavirus, COVID-19.  However we are respectfully requesting improvements to further strengthen income support and workplace protections for all workers who will need it now and in the coming months due to COVID-19 related work disruptions.

The federal legislation recently passed has significant gaps in coverage that must be addressed by our NJ state leaders. We must pass legislation that does the following:

• We must expand the unemployment insurance program to include undocumented immigrants who work and pay taxes.
• We must grant 15 emergency sick days to ALL workers, so that they can take time away from work if they fall sick to recover and prevent the spread of infection.
• We must remove burdensome barriers to workers accessing their earned sick days so they can be easily used when needed, to prevent the spread of the illness.
• Allow NJ Family Leave Insurance (FLI) to include parents and guardians whose employers are still operating but who need to be home for childcare and are therefore unable to work. The new emergency federal FMLA will provide some workers with 12 weeks paid leave for this purpose but many are still excluded and we need changes to our state FLI program to meet their needs.