On June 4, 2014, we blogged about the New Jersey Senate’s approval of a bill (S.1440) that would make it unlawful for New Jersey employers to discriminate against job applicants who are currently unemployed.  This prohibition would apply to the hiring process as well as to the setting of terms and conditions of employment.

On August 15, 2014, Governor Chris Christie put a huge road block in the bill’s path towards becoming new law when he vetoed the bill in its entirety, and for good reasons. The Governor’s central concern with the bill is the practical issues involved with its enforcement.  The New Jersey Department of Labor (“NJDOL”) is charged with enforcing the bill through summary proceedings and the assessment of civil penalties against employers who are found to have violated the bill.  Specifically, the Governor’s veto argued that there would be no practical way to enforce the bill through this mechanism because the NJDOL would be required to conduct an in-depth factual analysis to determine the subjective reasons why an employer chose not to hire an applicant.  Governor Christie further argued that New Jersey law already prohibits employers from including in their job advertisements any requirement that an applicant must be currently employed to be qualified for the position.  According to the Governor, this law already advances the public policy that employers should consider applicants regardless of their unemployment history and is enforceable by examining the advertisement itself rather than the type of subjective in-depth factual analysis involved in a summary proceeding.  As such, the new bill would not provide any additional benefit to the unemployed and only drive up the cost of doing business for employers in New Jersey.

While both houses of the Legislature could override Governor Christie’s veto, this would require a two-thirds majority vote to pass.  Therefore, it does not appear likely that the bill will pass in this session.

We will continue to track the progress of the bill.