Last week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law several bills to address issues raised in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. Among those signed by Murphy were more amendments to the New Jersey Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (NJ WARN Act) as well as expansions of the New Jersey Family Leave Act (FLA) and the New Jersey Temporary Disability Benefits Law (TDBL). Subscribers will recall that New Jersey also amended the WARN Act in response to the closing of the “Toys R Us” stores and layoffs of the toy retailer’s employees back in January of this year. Those amendments guaranteed severance pay for all covered workers in the case of massive layoffs (50 or more workers) and increased the minimum amount of notice employers must give from 60 to 90 days, both of which were to be effective on July 19, 2020. Under the amendments signed last week, the new requirements become effective 90 days after the expiration of a declaration of emergency, retroactive to March 9 (the date of Murphy’s emergency declaration). S2374, which Murphy also signed into law a few weeks, is retroactive to March 25, 2020 and expands the FLA to include an epidemic and allows an employee leave to care for a child where the school or child care facility must close; care for a family member with or exposed to a communicable disease; and care for a family member who must undergo self-quarantine. It also allows for the intermittent use of family leave. Finally, the definition of a disability under the TDBL was expanded to now include an illness caused by an epidemic of a communicable disease, or suspected exposure to same or the requirement for home-care or treatment due to the disease. The amendments now specifically provide that a COVID-19 related “disability” is compensable under the NJTDBL.