Murphy Signs Bill To Improve Safety In Sign Fabrication, Manufacturing Facilities

Gov. Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 3072 into law Tuesday to improve safety precautions in sign fabrication and manufacturing facilities.

“Improving both public and workplace safety are priorities of my administration,” Murphy said in a statement. “Today, we are ensuring that our workforce is properly trained with the necessary skills and knowledge to do their work safely, while also protecting the public from the dangers of defective signs.”

The Sign Fabrication Safety Quality Assurance Act will require a person who manufactures, distributes or sells fabricated signs in New Jersey to provide an approved training program for employees who perform manual labor in connection with the production of fabricated signs. The legislation also requires manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control procedures to ensure that all fabricated signs it manufactures, distributes or sells comply with the manufacturing and engineering specifications required by any contractual agreement executed with another party.

Under the law, any fabricated sign manufactured, distributed or sold in New Jersey after the bill’s effective date must have an affixed safety and quality assurance seal from the sign fabricator indicating that the sign complies with the legislation’s requirements.

The law will take effect on June 6, 2019.

“There have been a number of instances in which bystanders and workers have been injured or killed by signs that fell on them due to improper manufacturing,” Sen. Troy Singleton, D-7th District, said in a statement. “It is the government’s paramount duty to protect our citizens from negligence committed by sign manufacturers when they make a faulty product.”

“When faulty signs are installed, not only are workers endangered but so is the public,” Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, D-5th District, said in a statement. “We will no longer allow for the public to be put in harm’s way. This new law will protect people from the malpractice of those sign manufacturers who cut corners at the expense of public safety.”

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