Articles Posted in Civil Service Law

Published on:

by

Should I file a civil service appeal?  Well, read what a New Jersey appellate court’s recent decision said, and you will probably decide the answer is yes.new-york-county-courthouse-1540991328RMS-300x200

Background

Mina Ekladious had nine years of experience as a firefighter and earned a certification as a Firefighter I before he was conditionally hired by the Jersey City Fire Department.  The offer was contingent upon completing the Morris County Fire Academy, which trains prospective Jersey City firefighters.  He was removed as a firefighter for failing the physical examination at the Fire Academy.  Ekladious appealed his removal to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, which referred the case to the Office of Administrative Law for a hearing.

Continue reading
Published on:

by

Progressive discipline is a bedrock principle in New Jersey civil service law.  However, while flexible, progressive discipline has its limits.  The New Jersey Supreme Court recently issued a precedential employment law decision examining when progressive discipline allows forcapt-andrew-209x300 termination of a law enforcement officer’s employment for even a first offense in the case of In the Matter of Brian Ambroise.

Background

The case involved an appeal from an earlier decision by the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey.  I wrote about it here, so I will only briefly outline the facts of the case and how it got to the Supreme Court.

Continue reading
Published on:

by

New Jersey employment law affords significant wage and hour protections to employees through the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law and the New Jersey Wage Payment Law.  Both laws were significantly strengthened by amendments in 2019, adding additional penalties,6-300x225 recovery of attorneys fees, enhanced damages, and a longer, six-year statute of limitations.  One question left open by the Legislature was whether the statute of limitations would be applied retroactively to cover conduct prior to the amendments, or prospectively to cover only conduct from 2019 onward.  The New Jersey Supreme Court has now unambiguously answered that question.

The New Jersey Wage Payment Law

The New Jersey Wage Payment Law was enacted in 1965 and governs the timing and payment of wages.  It prohibits withholdings of wages unless the law expressly allows or requires.  Wages must be paid at least twice per month, and no later than 10 days after the pay period covered.  The employee must be told in advance what she will be earning, and before any changes to her pay are made.  She must be paid all wages due when she leaves employment on the next regular payday.

Continue reading
Published on:

by

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination prohibits discrimination and harassment in the workplace.  The New Jersey Civil Service Commission published a regulation incorporatingimagesCAWQ89PS this requirement.  However, in the case of Savchenko v. State of New Jersey, the New Jersey Supreme Court found that a portion of this regulation which requested that parties and witnesses keep the investigation confidential had a chilling effect on free speech.  It therefore struck down that portion of the regulation.

Background

The Civil Service Commission understandably seeks to maintain the confidentiality of these investigations, as publication might discourage witnesses from assisting, and victims from coming forward.   The regulation therefore contained a provision which provided that:

Continue reading
Published on:

by

New Jersey employment lawsuits alleging discrimination, harassment or retaliation are often resolved in settlement agreements.  The New Jersey Supreme Court recently clarified theNJ_State_House-300x200 permissible scope of non-disparagement agreements in those settlement agreements in the case of Savage v. Township of Neptune.

Background

Christine Savage was a police officer with the Neptune Township Police Department.  She filed a lawsuit against the Department and certain individuals in 2013 alleging that they violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by sexually harassing her, discriminating against her because of her gender, and retaliating against her because of her complaints of discrimination.  The lawsuit was settled in 2014.  As part of the settlement the Township agreed to give Savage access to training and promote her to sergeant.

Continue reading
Published on:

by

New Jersey civil service law provides employees with an effective avenue for appealing adverse employment decisions to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission.  However, in the case of Matter of Trejo, Police Officer and Union City, a New Jersey appeals court held that an employee may be removed from a civil service hiring list for a negative prior employee disciplinary history.  Thissupreme-administrative-court-3565618_960_720-300x200 decision has significant implications for how employees should handle allegations of misconduct and resulting discipline.

Background

Ana Trejo was a public safety telecommunicator with the Union City Police Department for ten years when she took the civil service examination for police officer.  She passed and was placed on the eligible list.  However, Union City removed Trejo from the list because of her history of civil service employee discipline during her ten year employment as a telecommunicator with the Police Department.  Her disciplinary history included minor discipline for absenteeism; being reprimanded for sharing confidential law enforcement information; and imposition of major discipline for “inappropriate conduct.”  The New Jersey Civil Service Commission gave notice to Trejo that she had been removed from the list for having an “unsatisfactory employment record.”

Continue reading
Published on:

by

In New Jersey Civil Service, hiring and promotion are done in accordance with the applicant’s (or “eligible’s”) rank on a list.  There are specific reasons why an applicant may be removed from a Civil Service list.  However, sometimes removal is done because of favoritism,sgt-johnny-jpeg-232x300 nepotism, politics, discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, cronyism, or outright bribery.  Since the entire purpose of the New Jersey Civil Service System is to ensure that hiring is based on merit, there is an appeal process for applicants who believe that their name was improperly removed from a Civil Service hiring or promotion list.

Allowed Reasons for Removal from a Civil Service Eligible List

An applicant may be removed from a list because she:

Continue reading
Published on:

by

The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court recently examined the use of the “Rule of Three” in New Jersey civil service list bypass appeals in the case of In the Matter of Antonio Salters, Fire Fighter, Township of Hillside.

Backgroundsupreme-administrative-court-3565618_960_720-300x200

Salters applied to become a firefighter for the Township of Hillside, New Jersey.  He passed the examination and ranked fourth out of forty eligible candidates on an open competitive employment list.  Thirteen candidates on the list were ultimately hired, but the Township exercised the “Rule of Three” to skip Salter on the list.  Salter appealed his bypass to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission.

Continue reading
Published on:

by

Under New Jersey employment law, criminal charges can have a significant impact on government employment beyond the penalties carried by the criminal charges themselves. paterson-pd-andrew-300x211 These effects impact both civil service and non-civil service employees.

Suspensions While Criminal Charges Are Pending

First, a public employee may be suspended while criminal charges are pending.

Continue reading
Published on:

by

Appellate Division Demonstrates Why It Makes Sense to Pursue Civil Service Disciplinary Appeals.

New Jersey civil service employees have protections which other employees do not.  The heart of this is the opportunity to appeal major discipline imposed by their employers.  A recentcop New Jersey appellate decision in the case of In the Matter of Malikah Spencer, Essex County, Department of Corrections, demonstrates that this process gives New Jersey civil service employees a fair hearing in these appeals, and demonstrates why civil service employees should pursue appeals of employer imposed major discipline.

Background

Continue reading
Contact Information
37 Vreeland Ave
Totowa, NJ 07512
Phone: (973) 890-0004
Fax: (973) 256-3641

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2015 – 2026, McLaughlin & Nardi, LLC
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design