Under the provisions of New Jersey’s Earned Sick Leave law Rutgers workers receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave every two years to care for a new child or an ill family member — with guaranteed job protections. A new provision took effect Friday, July 24, extending the benefit to workers with three months of tenure who have worked 250 hours, subject to the program’s criteria. Previously, a member who have been required to have been employed for at least 12 months and have logged 1,000 hours.
URA member Karen White (since retired from Rutgers Center for Women and Work in the School of Management and Labor Relations) conducted research favoring passage of the law initially and Yarrow Willman-Cole continued advocacy and education efforts at the center. In testifying for the expansion of the benefit, Yarrow Willman-Cole, now with New Jesey Citizen Action, said, “No one should be prevented from accessing the paid leave benefits that they are contributing to and entitled to. We passed paid family leave 17 years ago and it took us 10 years to improve it — it should not take another decade to get this right.” (New Jersey family leave expansion: Bill heads to Gov. Murphy after Senate approval – nj.com).
