TRENTON – Senator Joseph Coniglio, D-Bergen and a sponsor of S-477, which would set a minimum benefits rate for individuals working at big companies, made the following statement following today’s rally at the State House calling on Wal-Mart to offer employee health benefits:
“It’s time for Wal-Mart to wake up and pay up. New Jersey spends well over a billion dollars on health care every year. We can no longer afford to meet the health care obligations that Wal-Mart and other large companies have dumped upon us.
“Wal-Mart’s deplorable treatment of their employees has been well-documented over the years. Their practice of not providing most of their workforce with health insurance is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a practice that is being increasingly mimicked by other big companies.
“Companies that don’t do the right thing and provide their own health insurance should be required to reimburse the State for the costs it has to bear and I will work hard to make sure S-447 is signed into law.”