NJ Senate Passes Workers' Compensation Collective Bargaining Legislation

The NJ Senate passed an historic legislative proposal that will change the way benefits are delivered in work related injuries in NJ. S2447 provides for a collective bargaining arrangement that allows for delivery of benefits without the necessity of formal intervention before the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation, that will however remain an option in the process. 

As amended, this bill permits, but does not require, groups of employers establishing or participating in Taft-Hartley trust funds to purchase workers’ compensation insurance as a group or to apply to the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance for approval to enter into agreements to pool their workers' compensation liabilities for the purpose of qualifying as members of a group plan for self-insurance. A "Taft-Hartley trust fund" is a labor-management, jointly administered fund established by collective bargaining to provide employee benefits such as medical benefits or pensions.