(TRENTON) – To promote workforce diversity in public works projects, Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer, Middlesex), Joseph Egan (D-Middlesex, Somerset), and Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen) sponsored legislation signed into law today by Governor Phil Murphy to provide outreach and training programs for minority group members, members of disadvantaged communities, and women.
The law (A-5378) will promote workforce diversity in public works projects by permitting any public entity which includes a project labor agreement (PLA) to provide on-the-job and off-the-job programs to facilitate the hiring, training, and employment of disadvantaged and minority groups and women. Additionally, the law will expand beyond building-based public works projects and include highway, bridge pumping station, water, and sewage treatment plant projects.
DeAngelo, Egan, and Johnson issued the following joint statement:
“Workforce diversity is something in which New Jersey takes great pride. This law will allow the State to give employment opportunities to those who may have previously been overlooked. It will allow public works projects to not only employ minority communities, disadvantaged communities and women, but will also further the training and education of the workforce to further facilitate high quality work.”