Bill Text: NJ AR73 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Urges U.S. Congress to enact legislation protecting employee and retiree retirement benefits.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Passed) 2017-06-08 - Filed with Secretary of State [AR73 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2016-AR73-Amended.html

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[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 73

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

217th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 4, 2016

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  DANIEL R. BENSON

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

Assemblyman  WAYNE P. DEANGELO

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

Assemblyman  JOE DANIELSEN

District 17 (Middlesex and Somerset)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Urges U.S. Congress to enact legislation protecting employee and retiree retirement benefits.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As reported by the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee on February 27, 2017, with amendments.

 

An Assembly Resolution respectfully urging the Congress of the United States to enact legislation protecting employee and retiree retirement benefits.

 

Whereas, In recent years, many companies in New Jersey and elsewhere have abandoned the promises they have made to their workers through bankruptcy filings and other strategies to avoid paying their obligations to employees and retirees; and

Whereas, Though pensions and health benefits are earned by workers and are relied upon by retirees, these benefits  have become subject to reduction in the event of the employer or former employer's bankruptcy; and

Whereas, Continuing to allow companies to shift their bankruptcy costs onto the backs of employees and retirees is wrong and should be addressed by leveling the playing field for our workforce; and

Whereas, The "Bankruptcy Fairness and Employee Benefits Protection Act of 2014," (the "act") which was introduced in the 113^th United States Congress as S.2418 but was not enacted in that session, addressed some of these concerns by making it more difficult for companies to reduce or eliminate the pay and benefits their employees and retirees were promised and earned during their careers; and

Whereas, The act would have prohibited companies from using the bankruptcy system to reduce pay and benefits for employees and retirees, unless they can prove that the benefits cuts they have proposed are absolutely necessary to prevent the company's liquidation, and would have entitled retirees to the continuation of health care benefits for at least two years following the restructuring of their former employer, even if a court rules the employer is eventually allowed to halt benefits; and

Whereas, The act would also have revealed the extent to which companies have avoided their responsibilities to employees and retirees by commissioning a study by the United States Government Accountability Office on strategies some companies use to avoid paying promised benefits to their employees and retirees; and

Whereas, Workers and retirees in New Jersey, and other states, deserve to have critical health care and pensions benefits, which were earned through their hard work and loyalty, protected and secured; now, therefore,

 

     Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

      1.   This House respectfully urges the Congress of the United States to reintroduce and enact legislation identical to the "Bankruptcy Fairness and Employee Benefits Protection Act of 2014" in the current session of ¹[the 114^th]¹ Congress.

 

     2.    Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to each member of the United States Congress.