State Senate cancels vote on temporary workers bill, causes backlash from immigration rights groups

On Monday, state senators canceled a planned vote on a proposed law that would provide a multitude of additional rights to temporary workers and has been developed over numerous years, according to an article from NJ Advance Media.

The proposed law was intended to be voted on and then sent to Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.), who was expected to sign it into law, though various business leaders strongly opposed the bill being signed into law.

The bill would provide temporary workers with basic information about their employment positions in both English and their native language, guarantee that they will earn at least minimum wage after fees are deducted from their paychecks and also eliminate a significant number of the fees that temp agencies deduct from their employees’ paychecks.

Approximately 60 members of immigrant rights groups were forced to leave the gallery of the Senate due to the interruption of the voting session.

The members protested outside of the Senate with signs in an effort to demand that the lawmakers follow through with their word to support the proposed legislation as many temporary workers tend to be recent immigrants, according to the article.

The members did not know that there was a possibility the bill would not be voted on until approximately 2 p.m. on Monday, which was when the voting session was supposed to begin.

At the time the vote was going to take place, two Democrat senators had stopped supporting the bill, and two other Democrats who had previously voted for the earlier versions of the bill were not present.

Earlier this month, Murphy had also conditionally vetoed a previous version of the same bill and recommended certain changes be made to it before he signed it into law.

The state Assembly had decided to implement the changes by a 41-38 vote among the parties, according to the article.

Some of the changes that Murphy recommended include narrowing down the number of professions that could be considered for temporary work, changing how temp agencies register with the state and adding $1 million in funds to go toward the state enforcing the new rules.

Though, since the Senate did not pass the updated version of the proposed law on Monday, Murphy does not yet have to ability to decide on whether to sign it.

Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-N.J.) said he thinks the bill will still return to eventually be signed into law, according to the article.

“It didn’t have enough support (on Monday),” he said. “There just wasn't enough votes.”