August 17, 2022
NJDOL Uses Expanded Powers to Stop Worker Exploitation at Job Sites
Authority Extended Three Years Ago Helps Curtail Wage, Benefits Violations & Misclassification
TRENTON – In the three years since Governor Murphy signed a law expanding NJDOL’s powers to stop work on a job site when there is strong evidence workers are being exploited, the department has issued 71 stop-work orders, through which agents found nearly $1 million in back wages owed to 235 workers.
The law gave NJDOL’s Division of Wage and Hour and Contract Compliance the power to immediately halt work at any public or private work site – both construction and non-construction sites – when an initial investigation finds evidence that the employer has violated any state wage, benefit or tax laws.
“With the authority to issue stop-work orders as soon as we identify a violation, the NJDOL gained the ability to shut down a job when it finds workers are being exploited,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “The legislation signed by Governor Murphy in the Summer of 2019 has given NJDOL a powerful enforcement tool to uphold its mission of protecting our workforce, strengthening our businesses, and promoting the dignity of work.”
The most common violations leading to stop-work orders are: employers not having workers’ compensation insurance or misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Other examples include employers who fail to pay prevailing wage or overtime; those who have outstanding judgements against them; or those whose workers were not paid, were paid late or were shorted, or were paid in cash off the books. Often, these unscrupulous employers have not made their required contributions to the state unemployment trust fund, from which unemployment payments are drawn.
Prior to the law’s enactment, the NJDOL had little recourse to stop or prevent violators from shirking these policies. Work stoppages were rarely utilized because they could be applied only in cases when an employer amassed a history of violations. This made stopping out-of-state violators doing work in New Jersey particularly difficult, as they often left the state before the department could enforce state regulations.
Stop-work orders have been used to shut down work sites of all types, such as construction jobs, restaurants, an internet radio station, and medical offices. Typically, stop-work orders are resolved in a matter of a few days, and are often resolved on the spot when the order is delivered to a business – as was the case in August 2021 when the NJDOL issued stop-work orders to four separate businesses for wage violations, with each business paying the back wages owed to their workers immediately to avoid closure.
