Throughout their respective careers in the legislature, Senator Sweeney, Assemblyman Burzichelli, and Assemblywoman Riley have introduced and seen enacted a number of bills intended to protect New Jersey’s working men and women.

• One of Senator Sweeney’s most significant achievements has been the passage of the New Jersey Paid Family Leave Law, which extended the state’s Temporary Disability Insurance system to provide paid leave to workers who must offer care to sick or dying relatives or to a newborn or adopted child. This program is self-funded, not requiring any state dollars for payment of benefits.
• Senator Sweeney also introduced a constitutional amendment, with bipartisan support, to protect the state’s unemployment insurance fund and other programs designed to benefit workers from being use for other purposes, such as balancing the state’s budget. This amendment would ensure that these funds are only being used for the purposes for which they were intended, and was overwhelmingly passed by a vote of the public in November 2010.
• Senator Sweeney, Assemblyman Burzichelli, and Assemblywoman Riley sponsored the “Emergency Responders Employment Protection Act,” which provides certain employment protections for volunteer emergency responders who, because they are providing emergency services in response to a state of emergency or an emergency alarm, when they arrive late or fail to report to work.
• In 2002, Senator Sweeney and Assemblyman Burzichelli sponsored legislation requiring the State payment of survivor’s pensions when volunteer fire fighters or emergency services workers suffer accidental death on duty.