The Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act (A1044) became state law on December 20, 2007 after the New Jersey state legislature concurred in amendments requested by the Governor. The Act substantially mirrors the requirements of the federal WARN Act; however contains a few important differences.
Most notably, the state law increases the value of potential awards to long term employees by calculating damages based on average weekly pay multiplied by the employee's years of service. For workers who have been employed at the site for longer than eight years, potential awards may exceed those available under the federal statute. The state law further improves remedies to workers by barring the offset of severance pay against damage awards, requiring that attorneys fees be awarded to prevailing workers, and by allowing workers to receive the full measure of damages whenever notice is not given 60 days in advance of a plant closing or mass layoff. Finally, the state law provides significant improvements regarding the contents of notification and regarding the scope of information and services available to workers at affected worksites.
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