Gov. Phil Murphy announced an executive order on Friday mandating face masks and daily health checks of employees at businesses statewide. Many businesses around the state are already doing this, but Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick is objecting to the governor’s continued use of executive orders.

The executive order goes into effect at 6 a.m. on Thursday. Private businesses will have to require employees to wear face masks, have temperature checks and practice social distancing.

“It’s going to be another weapon at our disposal,” Murphy said. “There’s a whole set of obligations – reasonable ones, in my humble opinion – that employers must adhere.”

Many businesses were taking all these steps anyway, but the order issued by the governor under the authority of his emergency powers makes the rules uniform statewide. Following a separate announcement at Rutgers Friday, the governor says he's stepping in where the Trump administration hasn't.

“Shameful the federal government and OSHA have not taken the steps that they overwhelmingly should have to protect workers,” Murphy said.

But Bramnick says that the governor is overstepping his bounds.

“This is a very partisan, extreme Democrat, who in my judgment is really a political animal,” he says.

Bramnick says that Murphy is abusing his power by continuing to issue executive orders in the eight months since the pandemic began.

“No one has the absolute power, but why can’t everyone have the opportunity to be heard?” Bramnick asks. “That’s my question.”

Murphy defended his actions.

“We do executive orders when we don’t have another alternative or where we want to make a move now and not have to wait for a long process to play out,” he said. “But we respect the leadership on both sides of the aisle.”

Bramnick is not buying it.

"We're allowing one person to set these rules without any input from the public, from employers, from doctors. How do we allow that?" he says.

Murphy said he will go to the Legislature for approval, "When we think it is required or it bolsters our case to have a statutory fix, that's our preference. "