NJ Right to Know employer duties for labels and surveys
NJ Right to Know duties differ for public and private employers. Check survey routes, container labels, public-sector training and chemical records.
NJ Right to Know covers workplace and community chemical information, with different duties for public and private employers. Public employers have NJDOH survey and workplace duties, while covered private employers must assess state labeling and NJDEP reporting alongside federal OSHA requirements. NJDOH explains this division.
The law is New Jersey's Worker and Community Right to Know Act, N.J.S.A. 34:5A-1 et seq. This guide concerns chemical information, not access to public records. The NJDOH legal-access page identifies the Act and its implementing NJDOH rules.
Which NJ Right to Know duties apply to your workplace?
First determine whether the employer is public or private. NJDOH enforces all RTK Act provisions in public workplaces and RTK labeling in private workplaces. NJDEP handles private-sector community provisions other than labeling, according to NJDOH's program description.
| Compliance task | Public employers | Private employers |
|---|---|---|
| State survey route | RTK survey to NJDOH | Community RTK reporting to NJDEP, where covered |
| NJ RTK container labeling | Public-employer requirements | Applies to employers covered by the Act; use private-employer guidance |
| Workplace hazard communication and training | Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health, or PEOSH | Federal OSHA |
| RTK central file, posters and fact-sheet access | Public-employer duties | Do not apply the public-employer checklist wholesale |
These distinctions come from the NJDOH FAQ, RTK activities page and PEOSH hazard-communication guidance.
Private employers aren't categorically exempt from NJ RTK labeling. But employing people or using a chemical does not, by itself, establish every community-reporting duty. Check your facility's coverage through the NJDEP program identified in the NJDOH FAQ, rather than copying a public employer's survey process.
Use the hazardous substance list alongside product SDSs
The official NJ Right to Know Hazardous Substance List provides chemical names, synonyms and CAS numbers. It also includes RTK substance numbers, DOT numbers and source listings. Use those identifiers to check substances against the official list, rather than relying on a product's trade name alone.
Keep the product and its ingredients distinct. NJDOH Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets describe pure substances, not manufacturer-specific formulations. A product's safety data sheet, or SDS, and a substance fact sheet therefore answer different questions. Finding one fact sheet does not complete a product inventory or replace the product SDS. NJDOH explains these resources on its hazardous-substances and publications pages.
For an inventory review, keep the product SDS beside the official substance lookup. Match the ingredient's chemical name and CAS number before opening its NJDOH fact sheet. Keep the manufacturer's product record separate from NJDOH's pure-substance record. For public employers, check that workers can reach both the SDS and the required fact sheets, following the PEOSH access guidance and RTK duties.
The same lookup page provides a separate Special Health Hazard Substance List. Its categories include carcinogens, corrosives, flammables, mutagens, reactives and teratogens. Don't treat this as the full RTK list or as the federal EPCRA extremely hazardous substances list. Use the named NJDOH list that matches the task you are completing.
Follow the survey instructions for the reporting year
Public employers submit their RTK surveys to NJDOH. The 2025 RTK Survey instructions stated a submission deadline of July 15, 2026. That date has passed as of this article's November 2026 publication. It refers to the 2025 survey, not a survey named for its submission year.
Those instructions require a survey even when there are no hazardous substances. They also require submission when nothing changed from the 2024 survey. Employers must submit the 2024 survey before starting the 2025 survey, according to the same NJDOH page.
For that filing, review the carried-forward inventory. Check products, deletions and inventory quantities against the facility's records. Only ingredients on the NJ RTK Hazardous Substance List can be reported in the online system. A consultant can help prepare the survey, but a responsible public-employer employee must review, sign and submit it. These steps appear in the survey instructions.
Older guidance creates a practical snag. The publications page describes updates when products containing hazardous substances were added. For the 2025 survey, follow the newer, explicit survey-page instruction to file even without changes. Don't reuse an old “additions only” checklist or project the next deadline from July 2026.
Private employers need a separate reporting check. Their Community RTK survey route is NJDEP, not the NJDOH public-employer survey. Use the agency route in the FAQ to check current coverage and filing instructions. The public survey's deadline is not a private-sector filing calendar.
Check right to know labels against the correct guidance
NJDOH says public employers and covered private employers must label containers with ingredient chemical names and Chemical Abstracts Service numbers. That FAQ description is a starting point, not a complete label specification.
Use NJDOH's separate public- and private-employer labeling guidance on its publications page. Check the ingredients, container types and exceptions that apply to your workplace. Don't assume an OSHA/GHS label alone settles NJ RTK compliance. Equally, don't assume every container needs a separate extra label.
During a label review, use the employer-specific guidance to check actual containers in use, rather than approving a generic template. Keep this review alongside your workplace hazard-communication process. The agency's instructions provide the starting point for checking which NJ RTK requirements apply.
Separate public-sector training from private-sector OSHA duties
For public employers, PEOSH hazard-communication guidance requires refresher training every other year and when a new hazard is introduced. Training must occur on paid time and be delivered by a technically qualified person. It must suit employees' education, literacy and language.
That is not a statewide annual training rule for every employer. Private-sector workplace hazard communication falls under federal OSHA, rather than the public-employer PEOSH program. The NJ Labor safety and health portal directs private-sector employees to OSHA.
Access to documents is a separate task. SDSs for hazardous chemicals must be readily accessible to employees in their work areas under the PEOSH guidance. Public employers must also ensure ready access to fact sheets for chemicals reported on their surveys, as NJDOH describes. Training does not replace those records.
Maintain the public-employer central file and poster
NJDOH's publications guidance lists the public-employer central-file contents:
- The latest complete RTK survey and updates.
- Product SDSs, called MSDSs in older materials.
- NJDOH Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets or instructions for accessing them online.
- The Hazardous Substance List or online-access information.
Check the poster duty too. NJDOH's public-workplace inspections cover posters as well as surveys, labeling and central files. Don't treat a container-label review as a check of workplace signage.
For a facility review, first confirm employer coverage and the survey route. Then check the product inventory against the official list, review container labels, and check access to the required records. Public employers should also check their PEOSH training arrangements and RTK poster. Use the applicable agency instructions above for each task, rather than one checklist for both sectors. RegAffairs AI's answer on New Jersey employer duties discusses the public/private distinction and links supporting documents.