Bill Text: NJ S1960 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Expands authority of certain schools to issue employment certificates to minors.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2015-03-19 - Received in the Assembly, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [S1960 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-S1960-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator ROBERT W. SINGER
District 30 (Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Expands authority of certain schools to issue employment certificates to minors.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the issuance of employment certificates to minors and amending P.L.1940, c.153.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1) is amended to read as follows:
1. (a) "Employment certificate" means a certificate granted by the issuing officer authorizing the employment of a child as permitted under [this act] P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1 et seq.).
(b) "Age certificate" means a certificate issued for a person between the ages of 18 and 21 years.
(c) "Issuing officer" means any superintendent of schools, supervising principal, or teacher in a school district who is designated by the board of education in the district to issue certificates or permits in accordance with the provisions of [this act] P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1 et seq.); "issuing officer" shall also mean any supervising principal, or designee of the supervising principal, in any public or private high school in this State that chooses to grant employment certificates or permits in accordance with the provisions of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1 et seq.).
(d) "School district" means any geographical area having authority over the public schools within that area.
(e) "Agriculture" includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities (including commodities defined as agricultural commodities in subsection (g) of section 15 of the Agricultural Marketing Act, 46 Stat. 11 (12 U.S.C. s. [141] 1141 et seq.), as amended), the planting, transplanting and care of trees and shrubs and plants, the raising of livestock, bees, fur-bearing animals or poultry, and any practices (including any forestry or lumbering operations) performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market, provided that such practices shall be performed in connection with the handling of agricultural or horticultural commodities the major portion of which have been produced upon the premises of an owning or leasing employer.
(f) "Newspaper carrier" means any minor between 12 and 18 years of age who engages in the occupation of delivering, soliciting, selling and collecting for, newspapers outside of school hours on residential routes.
(g) "Restaurant" means any establishment or business primarily engaged in the preparation and serving of meals or refreshments, both food and drink, and shall include but not be limited to the following: dining establishments, catering establishments, industrial caterers, and drive-in restaurants.
(h) "Theatrical production" means and includes stage, motion picture and television performances and rehearsals therefor.
(i) "Seasonal amusement" means any exclusively recreational or amusement establishment or business which does not operate more than seven months in any calendar year or which has received during any consecutive six months of the preceding calendar year average receipts equal to or less than 33 1/3% percent of its average receipts for the other six months of that year. "Seasonal amusement" includes but is not limited to amusement rides and amusement device ticket sales, and operations of games. However, "seasonal amusement" does not include retail, eating or drinking concessions, camps, beach and swimming facilities, movie theatres, theatrical productions, athletic events, professional entertainment, pool and billiard parlors, circuses and outdoor shows, sport activities or centers, country club athletic facilities, bowling alleys, race tracks and like facilities which are not part of a diversified amusement enterprise.
(cf: P.L.1987, c.125, s.1)
2. Section 7 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.7) is amended to read as follows:
7. (a) Except as permitted under section 15 of [this act] P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.15), no minor under 18 years of age shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work in, about, or in connection with any gainful occupation, unless and until the person employing such minor shall procure and keep on file an employment certificate or special permit for such minor, issued by the issuing officer of the school district in which the child resides, by the issuing officer of the public or private high school which the child attends, or by the issuing officer of the district in which the child has obtained a promise of employment if the child is a nonresident of the State; provided, that:
(1) No certificate or special permit shall be required for any child 16 years of age or over employed in agricultural pursuits;
(2) No certificate or special permit shall be required for any child 14 years of age or over employed at such times as the schools of his district are not in session, at any agricultural fair, horse, dog, or farm show the duration of which does not exceed 10 days; and
(3) No vacation certificate shall be required in the first 14 days of employment for any minor 15 years of age or over employed in seasonal amusement, food service, restaurant or retail occupations, at such times as the schools of his district are not in session, provided that no minor under 16 years of age shall be permitted to operate, or service, or to work in, about, or in connection with power-driven machinery.
(b) The employment covered under this section shall not require or involve work in, about, or in connection with employments prohibited by [P.L.1970, c.115] section 15 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.15) and [P.L.1973, c.204] section 17 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.17) of the child labor laws.
(c) Such certificate or special permit shall be issued in triplicate in such form and in accordance with such instructions as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Education. The Commissioner of Education shall supply to the issuing officers all blank forms to be used in connection with the issuance of such certificates, and special permits as provided for in section 15 of [this act] P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.15).
(d) Employment certificates shall be of two kinds, regular certificates permitting employment during school hours, and vacation certificates permitting employment during the school vacation and during the school term at such times as the public schools are not in session.
(e) The original copy of the employment certificate shall be mailed by the issuing officer to the prospective employer of the minor for whom it is issued; a duplicate copy shall be mailed to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development in Trenton as provided in section 12 of [this act] P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.12), and a triplicate copy shall be kept in the files of the issuing officer. The issuing officer may refuse to grant a certificate, if in his judgment, the best interests of the minor would be served by such refusal and he shall keep a record of such refusals, and the reasons therefor.
(cf: P.L.1987, c.125, s.2)
3. Section 12 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.12) is amended to read as follows:
12. Every issuing officer issuing an employment or an age certificate or special permit, shall send immediately to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development at Trenton, a duplicate of the certificate or permit and the original papers upon which the certificate or special permit was granted. The department shall examine and promptly return to the issuing officer the said original papers and shall keep on file the duplicate of said certificate or permit. Whenever there is reason to believe that an employment or an age certificate or special permit was improperly issued, the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development shall notify the Commissioner of Education and the board of education of the school district in which the certificate was issued, or the appropriate board of education of the high school in the case of a certificate or permit granted by an issuing officer in a nonpublic high school. The appropriate board of education [of the school district] may cancel any employment or any age certificate or special permit issued by it, and shall cancel the same when directed so to do by the Commissioner of Education. Whenever any employment certificate has been cancelled, the board of education cancelling the same shall immediately notify the Commissioner of Education, the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development and the person by whom the child is employed, of its action, and such employer shall immediately upon receiving notice forward the certificate to the board of education.
All birth certificates, baptismal certificates, passports, insurance policies or other original papers submitted in proof of age shall be returned to the minor upon request after they have been returned to the issuing officer by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and after the issuing officer has transcribed for his files information pertinent to the issuance of the certificates. The Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development and the issuing officer may destroy all employment and age certificates and special permits or copies thereof when the birth dates set forth in such certificates and special permits are more than twenty-one years before the date of destruction.
(cf: P.L.1940, c.153, s.12)
4. Section 13 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.13) is amended to read as follows:
13. If a child within the ages for compulsory school attendance is employed in a school district other than that in which he lives, the issuing officer of the district in which the child lives, or the issuing officer of the high school the child attends in the case of a certificate granted by an issuing officer in a public or private high school, shall immediately send a duplicate of the certificate, properly filled out and the address of the employer to the superintendent of schools of the county in which the child resides who shall thereupon send said duplicate to the superintendent of schools of the county in which the child is employed.
(cf: P.L.1940, c.153, s.13)
5. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill allows any public or private high school in this State, if the school so chooses, to designate an "issuing officer" in their school who would have the authority to grant employment certificates (commonly referred to as "working papers") to minors. Current law provides that an issuing officer must be designated by a public school district and does not specify the public school facility in which the issuing officer must be located within the school district. This bill would allow any high school, whether it is public or private, to designate an issuing officer, thereby providing many minors easier access to obtaining employment certificates.
