Articles Posted in Civil Service Law

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In my last post I wrote about the Appellate Division case of In the Matter of Ambroise, which demonstrated that employees will get a fair hearing before the New Jersey Civil Service Commission and in appeals to state appellate Courts.  Another recent Appellate Division opinion columns-round-300x201in the case of In the Matter of Christopher Dunlap, Fire Fighter (M1838W), Township of Hillside shows that the Civil Service Commission and Appellate Division are not afraid to call B.S. on employers when the situation warrants.

Background

Christopher Dunlap passed the civil service examination for firefighter, and his name was placed on the eligible list.  His name was certified for employment with Hillside Township.  He completed the application process, but was rejected by the Township for allegedly making a “material misrepresentation” on his application.  Making any “material misrepresentation” in the hiring process will cause an applicant to be removed from the eligible list.  The Township said that he failed to disclose juvenile charges against him.  Facts are everything, so I will quote at length from the Appellate Division’s decision.

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A recent appellate opinion in the case of In the Matter of Ambroise demonstrates that New Jersey civil service employees will receive a fair hearing in appeals with the New Jersey’s Civil Service Commission and appeals courts.us-supreme-court-300x200

Background

Ambroise was terminated as a senior correctional police officer (SCPO) by the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC).  The DOC alleged that Ambroise engaged in oral sex with an inmate at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.

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New Jersey employment law in the public sector contains few more contentious areas than the confidentiality of the disciplinary and personnel records of law enforcement officers.  A trio of published New Jersey State and Federal court opinions have shed light on this contentious and evolving area of the law.police-1714956__340-300x200

In re Attorney General Law Enforcement Directives: Disciplinary Records

The Legislature has tasked the New Jersey Attorney General with supervising law enforcement throughout the state.  In 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, the New Jersey Attorney General used that authority to issue two directives which would release the names of law enforcement officers who have committed violations resulting in “major discipline,” and to issue summaries of the underlying complaints and discipline imposed. Although the directives apply to all State and local jurisdictions, they define “major discipline” similarly to New Jersey civil service law: suspension of greater than five days, demotion, or termination.  The Attorney General’s given reasons for the directives were to “promote trust, transparency and accountability.”

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What is a Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action?

A Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action, also known as a PNDA or a Form 31-A, is a New Jersey Civil Service form which notifies an employee that her employer seeks to impose discipline, including an immediate suspension in someimagesCAWQ89PS cases.

What should I do if I receive a Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action?

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Progressive discipline is a concept used in New Jersey civil service discipline law and teacher tenure charges.  It can serve to increase or decrease the severity of a penalty based on the employee’s prior disciplinary record.  Recently, an appellate opinion examined the concept ofbully-3233568__340-300x272 progressive discipline in the context of a civil service discipline appeal in the case of Matter of Stuiso, Bergen County Department of Public Works.

Background

Ronald Stuiso was a maintenance worker for Bergen County. He filled out two repair forms reporting unsafe conditions.   He directed another employee, Francesco Azzollinni, to submit the forms.  Azzollinni met with Vincent Rothenburger, a department supervisor.  Rothenburger raised his voice at Azzollinni, leading Stuiso to intervene and raise his voice at Rothenburger while getting in his face.  The two continued yelling until separated by co-workers.

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New Jersey employment law affords civil service employees with many due process protections when their employer seeks to impose discipline.  The Appellate Division’s recent decision in a civil service discipline appeal in the case of In the Matter of Figueroa, Camden County, Department of Parks examines one of the fundamental principles of these protections – the notice required to be received by thesupreme-administrative-court-3565618_960_720-300x200 employee before discipline may be imposed.

Background

Adrian Figueroa, Jr., was a laborer for Camden County, a civil service jurisdiction, for 5 years.  He was charged with second-degree sexual assault and spent several days in jail after his arrest.  While he was in jail someone, it is unclear who, called and said he was out sick.  Eventually the County learned of the charges and served him with preliminary and then final notice of disciplinary action (a “PNDA” and “FNDA,” Forms 31-A and 31-B) suspending him pending  the resolution of the charges.  They were eventually downgraded and Figueroa pled guilty to harassment, a petty disorderly office.

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The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination

New Jersey employment law has long been at the forefront of prohibiting discrimination.  Indeed, the Legislature adopted New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination in 1945, long before the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 first banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, and even before the President Harry Truman’s Executive Order desegregating the Armed Forces in 1948.  The Lawtenure-male-thumb-270x180-49202-thumb-200x133-49203 Against Discrimination has been amended many times since then to expand the protections against discrimination in employment, and decisions by New Jersey courts have interpreted the Law to provide much broader protections than those provided by similar Federal statutes such as the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (known as the “ADEA”).  However, the Law Against Discrimination is not without its flaws.  The New Jersey Legislature acted in 2021 to fix one of these flaws by strengthening the protections against age discrimination.

Prior Loopholes in Age Discrimination Protections

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In many areas of New Jersey employment law, the scope of an arbitrator’s powers is a significant question.  This is particularly true in the adjudication of tenure charges against New Jersey teachers and principals.  The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court squarely addressed this issue in the recently published decision in the case of Sanjuan v. School District of West New York.

The Sanjuan Case: Background

The Court explained that Amada Sanjuan was an assistant principal with the West New York Board of Education, after having been hired as a teacher in 1997.  On February 12, 2020, she fell down a flight of stairs.  Video of the scene showed that after she fell, she removed a piece of paper from her purse and placed it at the top of the stairs.  She pointed out the paper to a custodian and teacher who came to help her and explained that the paper caused her fall.  Sanjuan was out of work thereafter, but confirmed this version in a signed injury report.

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New Jersey employment law provides many protections to employees.  One of the strongest of these is the tenure rights afforded to public school teachers.  Even with such strong protections, for many reasons employees sometimes decide to forgo these rights.  The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey recently addressed a question about what notice is required when a full-time teacher voluntarily moves to a part-time position before she will be deemed to have waived her tenure rights to aback-to-school-1576791__340-300x200 full-time position in the case of Parsells v. Board of Education of the Borough of Somerville.

Background

Catherine Parsells was a tenured teacher with the Somerville, New Jersey, Board of Education.  She began working there in 2010.  In May 2016, a part-time teaching position with benefits became available.  She applied so that she could spend more time with her young son, and her application was approved.  Thereafter, Parsells went out on maternity leave on February 2, 2017.  She advised the superintendent that she intended to return to the part-time job the following year; he advised that she could, but the job would no longer have benefits, and that if she wanted befits she would have to work in a full-time position.  She continued part-time and later declined a new full-time position for family reasons.  She extended her maternity leave to include the entire 2017-2018 school year.

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A recent New Jersey employment law decision examined the procedures for reopening a Civil Service disciplinary appeal because of newly discovered evidence.

The Newsom Case

In the case of In the Matter of Kevin Newsom, New Jersey State Prison, Kevin Newsom, a civil service employee, was terminated as a corrections sergeant by the Newdc-court-appeals-district-columbia-building-abraham-lincoln-statue-74985350 Jersey State Prison.

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