New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has amended the state’s unemployment compensation laws and expanded the list of scenarios making workers eligible to apply for unemployment benefits. Signed April 24, 2023, Bill A4772/S3215 also loosened a number of requirements previously in existence that barred workers engaged in a labor dispute with management from collecting unemployment benefits.

The state’s unemployment benefits statute generally prohibits an individual from collecting benefits if the unemployment resulted from a stoppage of work due to a labor dispute at the place of employment. However, the amended law provides the following four exceptions:

First, the claimant will be eligible if that individual is not participating, financing, or “directly interested” in the labor dispute and that same “individual does not belong to a grade or class of workers of which, immediately before the commencement of the stoppage, there were members employed at the premises at which the stoppage occurs, any of whom are participating in or financing or directly interested in the dispute.”

Second, the claimant applying for benefits will be eligible if, even though there is a work stoppage due to a labor dispute, it can be established that the claimant is being prevented from working by the employer. This will remain the case even if the claimant’s representative has directed the employees in the bargaining unit to work under the preexisting terms and conditions of employment. If the period of unemployment began prior to January 1, 2022, the claimant cannot have engaged in a strike before being prevented from working; if the period of unemployment began on or after January 1, 2022, the claimant will be eligible for benefits whether a strike in which the claimant participated preceded the period of unemployment or not.

Third, any claim for unemployment beginning on or after July 1, 2018 that arises out of a stoppage of work due to a labor dispute will be a valid claim if “an issue in the labor dispute is caused by” the employer’s failure or refusal to comply with an agreement or contract, (like a collective bargaining agreement with the claimant’s union), or a failure or refusal to comply with a state or federal law that governs hours, wages, or other working conditions.

Fourth, for claims of unemployment on or after January 1, 2022 that arise out of a stoppage of work due to a labor dispute (whether or not authorized by the union and which include a strike or other concerted activity by employees), the individual will not be eligible for benefits for 14 days after the beginning of the unemployment, unless the employer engages replacement workers (whether on a temporary or permanent basis, and even if the individual’s duties are being covered by an existing worker by reassignment), in which case the individual will be eligible for benefits immediately. However, if there is a labor dispute but there is no stoppage of work, then no claim for benefits can be made.

Finally, not only did the act take effect immediately upon its passage, it also applies retroactively to all claims for unemployment compensation filed on or after January 1, 2022.

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