More NJDOL Comments Exist
New Jersey's Labor Department is preparing to release additional public comments about the proposed independent-contractor rule.
New Jersey’s Department of Labor & Workforce Development is preparing to release additional written public comments that were filed about the proposed independent-contractor rule, but that were not included in the comments the Labor Department previously released.
These written comments are from people associated with the insurance company New York Life. According to the company, there are 1,192 additional comments that were sent in May and June by a combination of New York Life employees and agents, following a call-to-action campaign with the option of participating. The comments are believed to oppose the proposed rule.
The deadline for the Labor Department to receive written public comments was August 6. On September 4, the Department released the written public comments it had received.
On September 8, I published this article about those written comments being 99% opposed to the proposed rule. As I wrote in that article, I had emailed the Labor Department prior to publishing, to make sure the released comments were, in fact, all the public comments that existed, and the Labor Department had confirmed that the comments it released were all of them.
This afternoon, after I heard that there was a development between New York Life and the Labor Department, I contacted New York Life, its email vendor, and David Fish, who is the Labor Department’s point person for public comments. I told them that I was working on an article about the New York Life comments.
Fish referred my questions to Thomas Wright, the Labor Department’s director of communications. My questions included this: “What steps has the Department taken now to ensure that all submitted public comments have been included in the process?”
This is the response I received from Wright tonight, in its entirety:
According to the response that I received from New York Life tonight, the company contacted the Labor Department about its missing comments on September 8.
“The Department’s response to these missing emails was both professional and collaborative,” according to a New York Life spokesperson. “We do not assume any ill intent. We appreciate the Department’s prompt and courteous cooperation in resolving the issue and ensuring that the comments of our New Jersey workforce will be considered.”
I also asked New York Life whether the company believes the situation with its comments was a one-off, or if it’s possible that other comments may be missing. A spokesperson replied: “We don’t know. We can only speak to our own experience.”
New York Life’s email vendor has not yet replied.
In addition to these 1,192 comments that are expected to be made public from New York Life’s team, the company’s senior vice president and general counsel submitted a written comment about the proposed rule. That comment was included in the Labor Department’s September 4 release.
Here it is:
The comment from New York Life’s general counsel states that the company supports the letter submitted by the American Council of Life Insurers, which also was included in the Labor Department’s September 4 release.
The American Council of Life Insurers comment states that the proposed rule, “if enacted as drafted, would effectively eliminate the independent contractor businesses of thousands of licensed insurance producers in New Jersey and cause significant harm to insurance small businesses and consumers.”
Here is the American Council of Life Insurers public comment in full:
Based on the Labor Department’s email to me about how it intends to release the additional New York Life comments, I expect the documents to become available online the same way comments were made available on September 4. Steps to find that location online are here.
It’s Still 99% Opposed
These additional 1,192 New York Life public comments, when they are added to the estimated 8,300 public comments the Labor Department released on September 4, would bring the total number of estimated public comments to about 9,500.
I am still only aware of 26 comments in support of the proposed independent-contractor rule. I published a list of those 26 comments with downloadable PDFs and links to read them here on September 8.
With the new estimate of about 9,500 total public comments that the Labor Department received, there would have to be about 95 such comments to achieve 1% support for New Jersey’s proposed independent-contractor rule.