NJDOL's Aggressive Use of Stop Work Orders Is Dramatically Altering the Compliance Landscape for Employers
The SWO law gives the agency a hammer to extract compliance in scenarios where the employer is often not left with a realistic or practical way to combat the assessments at this early juncture.
February 13, 2023 at 12:00 PM
8 minute read
The Murphy Administration and the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development (NJDOL) have demonstrated a willingness to pursue allegations of wage-hour violations aggressively. On July 8, 2021, Governor Murphy signed three bills into law that further broaden the agency's power to enforce state wage, benefit, and tax laws.
One of these statutes, the Stop Work Order (SWO) enactment (A-5890) has significantly expanded the State's wage-hour laws to give the DOL the power to stop an allegedly errant contractor, especially those doing prevailing wage work (or any non-construction employer) from actually doing any more work until the alleged violations are remedied. This power is being utilized in a vigorous manner, making defiance of such a SWO a costly, protracted and time consuming process, which is exactly what contractors and employers in these situations simply cannot afford.
Under this less than two-year old law, if the Commissioner (through his designees) determines that an employer is in violation of any State wage, benefit or tax law, the Commissioner has the power to issue a Stop Work Order against the employer requiring it to cease all business operations of the employer at any number of worksites, or across all of the employer's worksites and places of businesses. A final SWO remains in effect until the Commissioner is satisfied that the employer is complying with State laws and has paid any penalties.
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