On February 20, 2024, New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights published its long-awaited “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQs) regarding New Jersey’s Family Leave Act (FLA). They can be found here. New Jersey’s FLA provides job-protected leave to care for family members, including, bonding with a new baby, serious illness of a family member, or as a result of an epidemic of communicable disease.
The DCR issued FAQs to answer common questions and provide clarification and further explanation of its interpretation of the NJFLA statute and regulations to assist employers in their compliance with the FLA. The DCR was clear in its press release that the FAQs do not create any new obligations, requirements or rights under the FLA; rather, they were published simply to help employers avoid violations of the FLA.
The FAQs provide guidance, among other things, on how the FLA interacts with the Federal Family Medical Leave Act, as well as, how the FLA applies in conjunction with company paid leave or other paid insurance benefits such as Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance.
The FAQs included some of the top questions DCR received from both employees and employers include:
- Whether employers can deny leave requests and under what circumstances;
- Whether employers can require employees to exhaust paid leave accruals while using FLA;
- How to calculate the Hours of Service and 24-month period; and
- How FLA can be used by pregnant employees and during recovery from childbirth.
In particular, the FAQs provide specific guidance on “moonlighting” and whether employees are permitted to work at other jobs while on FLA. The FAQs indicate that depends on several factors, in particular whether the job was held before the start of FLA and whether it is full-time or part-time employment.
The Bottom Line. These FAQs provide valuable information regarding compliance with the FLA; however, employers should always speak with legal counsel for assistance with these and other leave issues.