Family Leave Act (FLA) – N.J. Stat. Ann. § 34:11B-1 et seq

Covered Employers: Employers with 30 or more employees (whether employed in New Jersey or not) for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the then current or immediately preceding calendar year.

Employee Eligibility: Employee has been employed by employer for 12 months or more and has worked 1,000 or more base hours during the immediately prece ding 12 month period.

Entitlement: 12 weeks of leave in any 24-month period for the following reasons:

• Bonding with a newborn child

• Bonding with a child placed with the employee for adoption or foster care

• Care of a family member with a serious health condition

• In the event of a state of emergency declared by the Governor, or when indicated to be required by the Commissioner of Health or other public health authority, an epidemic of a communicable disease, a known or suspected exposure to communicable disease, or efforts to prevent spread of a communicable disease, leave may be taken for the following additional reasons:

  • Care of a family member who is subject to a mandatory quarantine order because of an illness caused by, or suspected exposure to, a communicable disease

  • Care of a family member who is voluntarily following a recommendation to quarantine because of suspected exposure to a communicable disease

  • Care of a child whose school or place of care is closed due to a public health emergency.

Covered family members include:

• • Child of any age (biological, adopted, foster, step, child born through surrogacy, legal ward, resource family child)

  • Parent (biological, adoptive, foster, step, in-law, legal guardian, someone who stood in loco parentis)

  • Spouse/Domestic Partner/Civil Union Partner

  • Sibling

  • Grandparent

  • Grandchild

  • Any other blood relatives

  • Anyone with a close association to the employee that is the equivalent of a family relationship

Note: New Jersey's Family Leave Act does not cover leave for the employee's own illness. Therefore, it would be possible for an employee to be out of work for a disability with job protection through Federal FMLA, then still have New Jersey Family Leave time available for the birth or placement of a child, or to care for a family member with a serious health condition.

New Jersey Family Leave is not available for pregnancy or the employee's own illness. If an employee is out of work for pregnancy, New Jersey FLA can start after the employee is released to return to work, if the employee takes time to bond with the baby.

Employer Notice: Yes. Covered employers must display the official Family Leave Act poster and provide written guidance to employees, either using an existing mechanism for written materials such as an employee handbook, or individually to each employee. Both the official poster and a fact sheet that meets the written materials requirement are available at www.njcivilrights.gov.

Employee Notice: Yes. Employees are required to notify the employer. For leave that is foreseeable, the employee must provide notice no later than 30 days before the leave; or 15 days when using intermittent leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition. The notice periods apply except where emergent circumstances warrant shorter notice.

Obligation to Provide Certification or Documents Supporting Need for Leave: Yes. Employers may require that any period of family leave be supported by certification issued by a health care provider.

• When leave is taken to care for a child whose school or place of care is closed because of a public health emergency, the employee must provide the date of and reason for the closure.

• When leave is taken to care for a family member who is subject to a mandatory quarantine order because of an illness caused by, or suspected exposure to, a communicable disease, the employee must provide the date of and probably duration of the quarantine order.

• When leave is taken for care for a family member who is voluntarily following a recommendation to quarantine because of suspected exposure to a communicable disease, the employee must provide the date of, and probably duration of, the recommendation to quarantine, along with the facts used by the provider in making the recommendation.

Paid: There is no requirement that time taken under the New Jersey Family Leave Act be paid. An employee may use accrued paid time during a New Jersey Family Leave Act absence, according to the policies of the employer, as long as the employer treats these absences the same way they treat similar types of leave from work. Note, too, that an employee may be entitled t o receive up to 12 weeks of temporary disability insurance benefits for continuous leave or up to 56 days of intermittent leave under New Jersey's Family Leave Insurance program (Absence Specification name: "New Jersey Paid Family").

Benefits: Yes. Employers must maintain group health insurance coverage for employees on family leave at the level and under the conditions coverage would have been provided if the employee were not on leave.

Reinstatement: Yes. Reinstatement to the former position or to an equivalent position of like seniority, status, employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment, unless a reduction in force or layoff would have cost the employees their jobs.

Other Important Definitions/Requirements: Employers may deny family leave to employees who are salaried and among the highest paid 5% or among the 7 highest paid employees (by base salary), whichever is greater. Employers may also deny leave to prevent substantial and grievous economic injury to the employer's operations.

An individual may take intermittent leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition when medically necessary if: (i) the total time within which the leave is taken does not exceed a 12-month period for each serious health condition episode; (ii) the employee provides the employer with a copy certification from the family member’s health care provider; (iii) the employee provides the employer with prior notice of the leave not less than 15 days before the first day of the leave, unless an emergency or other unforeseen circumstance precludes prior notice; and (iv) the employee makes a reasonable effort to schedule leave so as not to unduly disrupt the employer’s operations.

If mutually agreed upon by the employer and the employee, the employee may take intermittent leave for birth or placement of a child.

In the case of leave taken due to an epidemic of a communicable disease, a known or suspected exposure to the communicable disease, or efforts to prevent spread of the communicable disease, the leave may be taken intermittently if: (i) the covered individual provides the employer with prior notice of the leave as soon as practicable; and (ii) the covered individual makes a reasonable effort to schedule leave so as not to unduly disrupt the operations of the employer and, if possible, provide the employer, prior to the commencement of the intermittent leave, with a regular schedule of the day or days of the week on which the intermittent leave will be taken.

An employer may require an employee on an intermittent or reduced schedule leave to temporarily transfer to an available alternative position which better accommodates recurring periods of leave, so long as the position has equivalent pay and benefits as the employee’s regular position.

The employer must notify the employee of its intent to deny leave at the time the employer determines denial is necessary. If the leave has already begun, the employee must return to work within 10 working days of the notification. This exception does not apply to family leaves in connection with an epidemic of a communicable disease.

Relationship with Other Leave: Eligible employees may qualify for up t o 12 weeks (or 56 days if leave is intermittent) of fa mily temporary disability leave benefits (family leave insurance) when taking time to care for a family member or to bond with a child.

• Where an employee requests leave for a reason covered by both the Act and another law, the leave simultaneously counts against the employee‘s entitlement under both laws. For example, the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq.

• An employee retains all rights under the Temporary Disability Benefits Law, N.J.S.A. §§ 43:21-25 et seq. The Family Leave Insurance Act of 2009 (H.R. 1723) extends the state's existing Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program and permits up to 6 weeks of insurance benefits for workers taking leave to provide care certified to be necessary for a family member. Interpretive Regulations at N.J.A.C. §§ 12:21-2.1 through 2.28.

Absence Specifications