New Jersey § 34:11-56

§ 34:11-56.

The Legislature finds and declares that: a. The use of unskilled and untrained workers at chemical manufacturing and processing

facilities that generate, store, treat, handle, refine, process, and transport hazardous

materials is a risk to public health and safety, and the risk to public health and

safety is particularly high when workers are employed by outside contractors because

they generally are less familiar with the operations of the facility and its emergency

plans and the owner or operator of the facility has less incentive to invest in their

training. b. Requiring that workers employed by outside contractors at these facilities be paid

at least at a rate equivalent to the prevailing journeyperson wage for their occupations,

or be registered in approved apprenticeship programs, is necessary to provide an economic

incentive for employers to use only the most skilled workers to perform work that

poses a risk to public health and safety. The wage scale is also necessary to provide an economic incentive for the workers

to obtain the mandatory advanced safety training required by section 3 of P.L.2020, c. 65 ( C.34:11-56.74 ). c. Requiring that apprentices be registered in approved advanced safety training is

necessary to ensure that these workers are receiving the proper training and on-the-job

supervision and that the programs are subject to proper oversight. d. The requirement that at least 60 percent of the journeypersons working for a contractor

be graduates of an approved apprenticeship program is necessary to ensure that the

majority of the journeypersons will have had appropriate classroom and laboratory

instruction for their occupations. A phase-in for this requirement will avoid disruption of the industry.