Bill Text: NJ A779 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires employers to provide time off from work for members of certain volunteer organizations to respond to fires under certain conditions.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-01-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee [A779 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A779-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JON M. BRAMNICK
District 21 (Essex, Morris, Somerset and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Requires employers to provide time off from work for members of certain volunteer organizations to respond to fires under certain conditions.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning time off from work for members of certain volunteer organizations and amending N.J.S.40A:14-36 and supplementing chapter 14 of Title 40A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) Each employer not so required under N.J.S.40A:9-160.1 shall grant time off from work to an employee who is a member of a volunteer fire company, first aid or rescue squad, or who serves as a volunteer driver of a municipally-owned or operated ambulance:
a. When the employee is called to respond to a fire occurring anywhere in the municipality in which he is employed; or
b. When the employee is called to respond to a fire occurring in any other municipality, provided that the fire station or other facility operated by a local fire department or force or first aid, rescue or emergency squad from which the alarm originates and to which the employee is required to report is located within five miles of his place of employment.
The employee must present adequate proof to the employer of his status as an active volunteer who is faithfully and actually performing volunteer service for a recognized emergency service organization in order to be granted time off in accordance with this section.
2. (New section) An employee who does not receive compensation from his employer for time taken from work pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (now pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be eligible for compensation computed at a rate comparable to his wages and appropriated pursuant to N.J.S.40A:14-36 by the municipality in which the fire occurs.
3. N.J.S.40A:14-36 is amended to read as follows:
40A:14-36. a. The governing body of a municipality, by resolution, may appropriate annually such sums of money as they shall deem necessary for the purpose of compensating any volunteer fireman, not in receipt of compensation for his services, for any losses sustained by him while performing his duties as such volunteer fireman.
b. The governing body of
a municipality, by resolution, may appropriate annually such sums of money as
they shall deem necessary for the purpose of compensating any
volunteer in a first aid or rescue squad, or volunteer driver of a
municipally-owned or
operated ambulance, not in receipt of compensation for his
services, for any losses sustained by him while performing his duties as such
volunteer first aid or rescue squad member, or driver, when granted time off to
respond to a fire in accordance with P.L. , c. (C. ) (now pending
before the Legislature as this bill).
(cf: N.J.S.40A:14-36)
4. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require each employer in the State to provide time off from work for an employee who is a member of a volunteer fire company, first aid or rescue squad, or who serves as a volunteer driver of a municipally-owned or operated ambulance under certain conditions. Presently, only municipal governments are required by State law to grant time off to these volunteers so that they can respond to alarms occurring during the hours of their employment. N.J.S.A.40A:9-160.1.
The conditions which would require an employer to grant time off from work to a volunteer are: 1) the employee is called to respond to a fire in the municipality in which he is employed; or 2) the employee is called to respond to a fire in a separate municipality, and the fire station or other facility operated by the local fire department or first aid, rescue or emergency squad from which the alarm originates and to which the employee is required to report is located within five miles of his work place. An employee would also be required to present adequate proof to the employer of his status as an active volunteer in order to be granted time off in accordance with the provisions of the bill.
The bill would also make the enumerated volunteers eligible to receive compensation, if not already provided for by an employer, for time spent away from work responding to a fire. The compensation would be collected and paid for by the municipality in which the fire occurred. The provisions of N.J.S.A.40A:14-36, which currently apply only to the compensation of volunteer firefighters, is amended by the bill in order to accommodate the broader scope of volunteers who would be eligible for compensation.
