O’Reilly Presents on Paid Family Leave Act at NJBIA Seminar

 

Roseland, NJ, June 2, 2009 — Connell Foley Partner Tricia B. O’Reilly,  spoke at New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) “Paid Family Leave” Seminar on May 20, 2009., at The Wilshire Grand Hotel in West Orange, New Jersey. Ms. O’Reilly spoke about the details of New Jersey’s new paid leave law, and provided practical steps on how employers can comply with its requirements, particularly when the new law’s paid leave provisions go into effect on July 1, 2009. 

 

Key to Ms. O’Reilly’s presentation was explaining that the new law does not actually provide a paid leave benefit to employees because it does not guarantee job restoration following a period of absence. Instead, Ms. O’Reilly explained that new law is more akin to temporary disability insurance or unemployment insurance in that it provides partial income replacement for up six weeks each year for the birth or adoption of a child or to deal with a family member's "serious health condition." In fact, Ms. O’Reilly noted that the actual title of the new law, “Family Leave Insurance law,” was an attempt to dispel the commonly held misperception that new law provides job restoration rights. Ms. O’Reilly urged employers to amend all of their leave policies to expressly convey this key distinction to their workforce, and thereby further counter any reasonable expectation that employees will automatically retain or return to their job during a period of paid leave.

 

Ms. O’Reilly also clarified that the new law did not provide a license to terminate employees who choose to exercise their rights to receive income replacement from the State during a period of leave. Ms. O’Reilly stressed that it was important for employers to continue to comply with all of the statutes relating to leaves of absences from work, such as the federal Family Medical Leave Act, New Jersey’s Family Leave Act, and, even anti-discrimination statutes, such as New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and the federal Americans With Disability Act.

 

Ms. O’Reilly practice includes employment litigation and employer counseling. Ms. O’Reilly has represented clients in a number of industries, including pharmaceuticals, grocery and specialty foods, construction, paper manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, chemical, energy, computer software, real estate development, and higher education. Ms. O’Reilly has litigated cases in federal and state court involving restrictive covenants, wrongful discharge claims, breach of employment contracts, and alleged discrimination and retaliation under Title VII, ADA, NJLAD, and other federal and state anti-discrimination and whistle-blower statutes. She regularly counsels clients in making employment-related decisions so as to avoid or to reduce the risks of litigation and has extensive experience in conducting internal corporate investigations. 

 

For more information, please contact Tricia B. O’Reilly at 973-535-0500 or toreilly@connellfoley.com.