Stop Work Orders: What Contractors and Owners Need to Know

In this episode of Brach Eichler Talks, attorneys Jay Sabin and Ashley L. Matias discuss the increasing use of Stop Work Orders by the New Jersey Department of Labor and what that means for contractors and business owners. The conversation covers how these orders are issued, the role of wage and hour compliance, and the legal implications of worker misclassification under the ABC test.

With Stop Work Orders now being issued roughly every 10 days—most frequently to contractors—this episode offers a closer look at the enforcement trends and the potential operational and financial impact on businesses across the state.

🎧 Tune in for an in-depth discussion of this growing enforcement tool and how it’s reshaping business practices in New Jersey.

 

For more information or assistance, please contact: 

- Jay Sabin, Esq., Member, Labor & Employment Practice, at [e-mail], 917-596-8987, or https://www.bracheichler.com/professionals/jay-sabin/

- Ashley L. Matias, Esq., Associate, Labor & Employment Practice, at [e-mail], 973-364-8330, or https://www.bracheichler.com/professionals/ashley-l-matias/

 

To read the full New Jersey Law Journal article, visit https://www.law.com/njlawjournal/2025/03/17/njdols-authority-to-issue-stop-work-orders/

 

*This is intended to provide general information, not legal advice. Please contact the authors if you need specific legal advice.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
…Thank you for tuning in to the Brock Eichler Talks podcast

(00:06):
, where we explore and discuss today's trending legal topics.
In this episode, Brock Eichler attorneys Jay Sabin, Esquire and Ashley L.
Matias, Esquire, discuss what contractors and owners need to know
about stop work orders… Hello, listeners.
Thanks for tuning in. We're here to talk about our recent New Jersey Law Journal article

(00:28):
regarding the New Jersey Department of Labor's authority to issue stop work orders.
Our article has garnered quite a bit of attention, and since then, we have received plenty of
calls from clients, particularly contractors.
Hi, everyone. My name is Ashley Matias. I'm an attorney at the labor employment department here at Brock Eichler.
I'm here with Jay Sabin, an experienced labor and employment attorney who has appeared before

(00:49):
the Department of Labor and other government agencies and has
walked contractors through the stop work order process every step of the way.
So, Jay, let's start off with what brought us here today.
Specifically, what led us to draft this article?
Thanks, Ashley. The New Jersey contractor community is enormous.
It employs over a hundred and fifty thousand people

(01:12):
, of whom nearly two thirds are in the specialty trades.
We wanted to write an impactful article, one that would help contractors focus on their wage
and hour and wage payment compliance obligations.
So, Ashley, let's start this off by talking about what exactly is a stop work order.
So a stop work order is an administrative directive, otherwise known as an injunction, that

(01:35):
compels the recipient to seize all work.
Some stop workers are directed only at a particular construction site, but others can be
directed at an employer's entire workforce throughout the state of New Jersey.
And, Ashley, who has the authority to issue a stop work order?
So the New Jersey Department of Labor had the authority to issue these orders.

(01:56):
So, Jay, can we explain to our listeners why the New Jersey Department of Labor would even issue a stop work order?
That's the key question, Ashley. A stop work order is a tool given to the Department of
Labor to dissuade employers from failing to
comply with our state's wage and hour and wage payment laws.

(02:17):
And to compel the business that receives a stop work order to start complying with those laws.
The New Jersey Department of Labor may issue a stop work order only after it has conducted an
audit or an investigation of a business, and has determined that the
business is not complying with those wage and hour laws.

(02:39):
So Jay, are there certain wage and hour laws that the New Jersey Department of Labor focuses on
when they're deciding whether to even issue a soft burn quarter?
Generally, yes. A very common focus of the New Jersey Department of Labor is worker
misclassification… Meaning, a business that pays a worker as an independent contractor by

(02:59):
ten ninety nine, when the person should really be considered an employee to be paid by w two.
Under New Jersey law, a worker is presumed to be an employee and not an independent
contractor unless the business can prove three things about the worker.
First, that the worker is free from control

(03:23):
or direction over the performance of the work.
Second, that the work is performed either outside the company's usual course of business,
and outside of the businesses' places of business.
And three, that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade,

(03:45):
occupation, profession, or business.
As some of our listeners know, this three part
analysis is referred to as the ABC test.
So in conclusion, when the New Jersey Department of Labor determines that an employer has
misclassified employees as independent contractors, it can issue a stop work order.

(04:07):
So let's switch gears and talk about what employers can do once a stop work order is issued against them.
So there are options. A business can either contest the order
, or they can cut a deal with the New Jersey Department of Labor.
Contesting the order is quite a process. It entails going before an administrative hearing
officer and proving that the Department of Labor didn't have the grounds for issuing the order in the first place.

(04:32):
If the hearing officer does not agree, a business can appeal the decision to an administrative law judge.
Now if the administrative law judge does not agree, the business can then appeal the matter to court.
Until that order is overturned, it remains in effect and work cannot be performed.
For contractors, specifically, this can be a nightmare.

(04:52):
This can cause significant delays in job completion and potential issues with project financing.
Now, alternatively, the business can enter into a settlement with the New Jersey Department of
Labor, which usually includes payments to the workers and payments to the Department of Labor
for administrative processing and administrative fine.
It's not uncommon for the total settlement payment to far exceed the amount of monies or wages owed to the workers.

(05:16):
Oftentimes, the settlement amount is multiples of that figure.
Now, Jay, when we were researching for our article, what surprised you the most about stop work orders?
So, Ashley, he here's what we knew. We knew, before we wrote this article, that in two
thousand nineteen, New Jersey had greatly expanded the powers of the New Jersey

(05:38):
Department of Labor to enforce our state's wage and hour laws.
And we also knew that as part of that twenty nineteen expansion, the state had authorized
the New Jersey Department of Labor to issue stop work orders.
But we did expect to find just how often these

(05:58):
orders are being issued by the New Jersey Department of Labor.
According to our research, the Department of Labor is issuing stop work orders at the rate of
one every ten days, and more than eighty
percent of those stop work orders have been issued to contractors.

(06:18):
Frankly, that surprised us greatly. Wow.
That is a whole lot of projects being postponed. So now that we know stop work orders are a
real possibility, especially for contractors,
Jay, can you give our listeners some advice on what they should… do?
For sure. The wage and hour and wage payment laws of New Jersey are voluminous.

(06:39):
In addition, there's a there's other requirements and obligations for contractors who work on
public work projects, and we haven't even covered those today.
Our advice is that no contractor should bid on a project or
hire workers without making sure that they can comply with these laws.
A stop work order can be like a workplace death penalty,

(07:02):
resulting in financial and reputational losses.
So there you have it, everyone. Thank you for tuning in. For those of you who have any
questions or concerns about your wage and hour practices, we are here to help.
You can find our contact info in the caption, or you can visit brock eichler dot com.
For those of you who would like to read our New Jersey Law Journal article, that link is also in the caption.

(07:24):
For more information or assistance, please contact Jay Sabin Esquire, member labor and
employment practice at j sabin at brock eichler dot com or nine one seven five nine six eight
nine eight seven or Ashley l Matias, Esquire, associate labor and employment practice at a
matias at brock eichler dot com or nine seven three three six four eight three three zero.

(07:45):
This is intended to provide general information, not legal advice.
Please contact the authors if you need specific legal advice.
Brock Eichler LLC is a full service law firm based in Roseland, New Jersey with over eighty attorneys.
The firm is focused on the following practice areas, health care law, real estate, litigation

(08:05):
, trusts and estates, business transactions and financial services, personal injury, criminal
defense and government investigations, labor and employment, environmental and land use,
family law services, patent, intellectual property, and
information technology, real estate tax appeals, tax, and cannabis