The Working Test Period in NJ Civil Service

What the working test period is for

The rule describes the working test period as part of the examination process, designed to let an appointing authority determine whether you can satisfactorily perform the duties of the title (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.1(a)). The statute uses almost the same words, and adds that the period is served in the title to which the certification was issued and the appointment made (N.J.S.A. 11A:4-15).

That framing explains much of what follows. Because the period is still part of the selection process, ending it for unsatisfactory performance is a separate action from discipline, with its own notice rule, its own appeal and its own burden of proof (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.4, 4A:2-4.1 through 4A:2-4.3). Discipline for misconduct during the period runs on the ordinary discipline rules instead, which the discipline and removal guide covers.

During the period you perform the duties of the title you were appointed to (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.1(c)). Someone hired as a senior clerk and assigned mostly to another title's work is not being tested in the title the period is meant to test.

Who serves one, and who does not

Every regular appointment to a career service title carries a working test period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.1(b)). That covers competitive division appointments made from an eligible list after an examination (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-1.1(a)) and noncompetitive appointments, whose appointees must meet the job specification's minimum requirements and satisfactorily complete the period (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-1.2(d)). Trainees serve one on regular appointment, and a trainee, apprentice, recruit or intern advanced to the primary title serves another one there (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-3.7(c), (j)4).

N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.1(b) lists the appointments that skip it:

• Appointments from special, police, sheriff's officer, fire and regular reemployment lists.
• Appointments to a comparable or lower related title in lieu of layoff.
• Appointments to a title you previously held on a permanent basis within your current permanent continuous service.
• Lateral title changes, which follow N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7.6(b): where the two titles are substantially similar in the nature of the work and in their education and experience requirements, you keep permanent status.

Provisional appointees do not serve a working test period while provisional. The period attaches to the regular appointment, so it starts only if and when you are appointed from the list, a path the provisional appointments guide walks through. When the Commission moves a title from the competitive to the noncompetitive division, provisional employees who remain in the title receive regular appointments and begin their working test periods on the reallocation's effective date (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-1.2(f)3).

How long it lasts

Length turns on two things: State or local service, and the title. The local and State periods for most titles are measured in months of active service (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(b)), and the rule sets the lengths as follows.

A law enforcement title, for this purpose, is one with full police powers, and the rule expressly leaves out the local competitive title of police assistant (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(d)). The statute provides for a four-month period following regular appointment that the Commission may extend to six, and for 12 months in entry level law enforcement, correction officer and firefighter titles (N.J.S.A. 11A:4-15, subsection a).

A State extension has a timetable. The appointing authority's request should reach Commission staff at least five working days before the four months end, and the appointing authority has to tell you about the extension in writing on or before the last day of the four-month period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(b)2). A State employee in an intermittent title who is furloughed before finishing picks the period back up on returning from furlough (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(b)2ii). Local intermittent titles carry a prorated period that the employer proposes when it asks the Commission to create the titles (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-3.8(e)1).

When the clock starts, and what stops it

The working test period begins on the date of regular appointment, and it does not include any time served under a provisional, temporary, interim or emergency appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(a)). Years spent provisionally in the same job therefore do not shorten it. The day the regular appointment takes effect is day one.

Leave pushes the end date back. An approved leave of absence, including a furlough extension leave or a voluntary furlough, extends completion by a period equal to the leave (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(e)), and the voluntary furlough rule says the same thing from its side (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.23(h)). One exception: paid leave given to a correction officer or juvenile detention officer for required training does not extend the period, unless the course ends after the one-year period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(e)1).

Local police officers who must complete a police training course under the Police Training Act do not begin the working test period until the appointing authority hears from the Police Training Commission that they passed it. Major discipline procedures still protect them from the date of appointment through the end of training, and once the working test period is successfully completed, the date of appointment from the eligible list is recorded as the date of regular appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(d)1). An officer who finished the course before appointment starts the period on the date of regular appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(d)1i).

Military leave is handled the other way round. An eligible appointed while on military leave who returns and successfully completes the period has the same rights, privileges and obligations as if they had served continuously in the title from the original effective date of appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-4.6(b)).

Progress reports and evaluations

Your appointing authority has to write a progress report on you at the end of two months and a final report when the period ends. If a State period has been extended, there is another progress report at five months and a final report at the end of the extension (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.3(a)). For entry level law enforcement, correction officer, correctional police officer and firefighter titles, the progress report comes at six months, followed by a final report at the end (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.3(b)).

You get a copy of every report (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.3(c)). The statute requires a final progress report at the end of the entire period to go to both you and the Commission (N.J.S.A. 11A:4-15, subsection b).

State and local employers keep the paperwork differently. A State appointing authority keeps all the reports in your personnel file and holds them for the length of your service plus six years after you leave State service. If it is separating you, or returning you to your permanent title, for unsatisfactory performance, it must send Commission staff copies of every progress report, the final report and the written notice within five days after the last day of the period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.3(d)). A local appointing authority hands its reports to Commission staff when asked (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.3(e)).

In State service the performance appraisal system adds a step at the front. Before the working test period begins, your supervisor is to prepare a job performance plan that identifies the assignment, sets out the essential criteria for successful performance, and emphasizes training and development (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-5.2(d)1).

Limits while you are serving it

You cannot sit a promotional examination from the title in which you are serving the period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.1(d)). Promotional eligibility normally takes one year of continuous permanent service in an eligible title, and an appointing authority may ask to cut that requirement down to completion of the working test period when the list would be incomplete, when vacancies would outrun the possible eligibles, or for other reasons the Chairperson or designee accepts (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-2.6(a)1, (g)).

Transfers are restricted. A working test period employee may be transferred only because functions or operations are transferred or combined, or through lateral displacement rights in a layoff, and anyone moved that way finishes the period in the new organizational unit (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7.5). A non-permanent entry level law enforcement officer who transfers to another jurisdiction under the intergovernmental transfer rule has to serve the full 12-month period again with the receiving employer (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7.1A(a)1).

Two State workplace programs wait for the period to end. If you are eligible, you may join telework, an alternative workweek program, or both only after you successfully complete the working test period, and the same applies when you transfer in. Where a title has no working test period, the wait is 120 calendar days from the effective date of appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(g), 4A:6-2.7(c)). The State telework guide covers the rest of that program.

How the period ends

If you complete it successfully, you become a permanent employee in the title (N.J.A.C. 4A:1-1.3). What the rules regulate closely is the other outcome.

An appointing authority may separate you for unsatisfactory performance at the end of the period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.4(a)). If it does, or if it returns you to your former permanent title for that reason, it has to give you written notice, delivered in person or by certified mail (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.1(a)). The notice must tell you that you have the right to request a hearing before the Civil Service Commission within 20 days of receiving it (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.1(b)).

Timing is strict. The notice must be served no more than five working days before, or five working days after, the last day of the working test period. A notice served after that window closes creates a presumption that you have attained permanent status (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.1(c)). The rule ties the presumption to late notice only, and says nothing about notice served too early (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.1(c)). Where the notice comes after the last day, inside the window, the period is treated as ending on the date the notice is served (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.2(c)).

1. Written notice. The appointing authority serves written notice in person or by certified mail, within five working days before or after the last day of the period, stating your right to request a Commission hearing within 20 days (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.1).
2. Reports go to the Commission (State). In State service, within five days after the last day, the appointing authority sends Commission staff all progress reports, the final report and the notice (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.3(d)2).
3. File the appeal. You appeal in writing to the Civil Service Commission no later than 20 days after receiving the notice (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.2(a)).
4. Hearing request reviewed. The Chairperson or designee reviews and decides the request for a hearing (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.3(a), 4A:2-2.9(a)).
5. Commission decides on bad faith. You must show the action was in bad faith. If you do, the remedy includes a new full or shortened working test period (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.3(b), (c)).

Appealing a termination or a return to your old title

The appeal goes to the Civil Service Commission in writing, no later than 20 days after you receive the appointing authority's written notice (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.2(a)). If the appointing authority never served the notice the rule requires, the appeal must be filed within a reasonable time instead (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.2(b)). The statute sets the same 20 days from receipt of the final written determination, with the same reasonable-time fallback (N.J.S.A. 11A:2-15).

The appeal is processed under N.J.A.C. 4A:2-2.9, the rule on Commission hearings, which has the Chairperson or designee review and decide requests for a hearing (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.3(a), 4A:2-2.9(a)). The statute lists termination at the end of the working test period for unsatisfactory performance among the appeals on which the Commission renders its final decision after a hearing (N.J.S.A. 11A:2-6, subsection a).

The burden sits with you. You have to establish that the action was taken in bad faith (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.3(b)), and the statute likewise puts the burden on the employee in this category while putting it on the employer for removal, suspension and demotion (N.J.S.A. 11A:2-21). That is the reverse of a major discipline appeal. The rule does not define bad faith.

If the Commission finds bad faith, you are entitled to a new working test period, full or shortened, and other appropriate remedies (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.3(c)). The remedies rule lets the Commission award seniority credit in any successful appeal. Back pay, benefits and counsel fees outside discipline and bad-faith layoff appeals can be granted where the Commission finds sufficient cause, which may be found where the employee shows the appointing authority acted in bad faith or with invidious motivation (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-1.5).

Going back to your old title, or back onto the list

A promoted employee keeps permanent status in the lower title while serving the working test period in the higher one, and has the right to return to it if the period is not completed satisfactorily. Employees removed for cause during the period are not returned (N.J.S.A. 11A:4-15, subsection d). Your seniority in the permanent title keeps building for the whole time you are on trial in the new one (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.5(c), 4A:8-2.4(g)).

The return rule gives you rights to a position in the permanent title in the same organizational unit, as long as you held that title within your current continuous service. In State service the organizational unit is the appointing authority; in local service it is a department or separate agency in the same jurisdiction (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-1.9(a)). The employer makes room in a set order: a vacant position, then the position of a provisional employee with no permanent status, then the position of someone serving provisionally in your permanent title, who goes back to their own permanent title (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-1.9(b)). You and the employer may also agree on another title at the same or lower level, and if none of that works, layoff procedures have to be used (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-1.9(c), (f)).

The same return applies to the other routes into a new title. An employee moved by lateral title change to a dissimilar title, or by voluntary demotion to an unrelated lower title, is appointed pending examination and completion of the period, and one who is released at the end goes back to the permanent title unless disqualified for further employment (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7.6(c), 4A:4-7.8(c)). In a voluntary demotion, the appointing authority may require you to sign a written waiver of layoff rights in the higher title for the length of the working test period, and if you sign it, a layoff during the period gives you rights only in the probationary title (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7.8(c)2). Trainees are the exception to the return rule: a trainee, apprentice, recruit or intern advanced to the primary title who fails the working test period there has no right to return to the trainee title (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-3.7(j)4).

If you had no permanent title to return to, the eligible list may still be open to you. An employee who resigns in good standing, or is separated for unsatisfactory performance, during or at the end of the period may ask to be restored to an eligible list, and the Chairperson or designee decides whether you are suitable for appointment to another position (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.5(a)). The factors include whether the list can be certified to another appointing authority and your former appointing authority's recommendation. Anyone removed for disciplinary reasons cannot be restored, and a restoration request is held in abeyance while an appeal under N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4 is pending.

Discipline during the period

You can be disciplined while serving a working test period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.4(b)). The major discipline rules apply to permanent career service employees and to anyone serving a working test period, in State and local service (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-2.1(a)). So a removal, disciplinary demotion, or suspension or fine of more than five working days carries the same written notice, hearing and appeal as it would for a permanent employee, and the statute names working test period employees in the hearing requirement (N.J.S.A. 11A:2-13). In State service, the minor discipline procedure covers working test period employees too (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.1(e)1). Also in State service, a review procedure or a binding arbitration procedure negotiated with the majority representative becomes the exclusive route for working test period employees as well as permanent ones (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-2.1(c), (d)).

The statute treats the two kinds of ending separately. It provides both for termination at the end of the working test period and for termination for cause during it (N.J.S.A. 11A:4-15, subsection c). A removal for cause is discipline, and the appointing authority carries the burden of proof in that appeal (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-1.4(a)). It also costs more afterwards: an employee removed for disciplinary reasons cannot be restored to an eligible list (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.5(a)2), and a promoted employee removed for cause loses the return to the lower title (N.J.S.A. 11A:4-15, subsection d).

Removal because you are disqualified, such as under the examination disqualification rules, also goes through major disciplinary procedures for someone serving a working test period (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-6.2(c)).

If a layoff comes during the period

Working test period employees get the same 45-day written layoff notice as permanent employees before they can be separated or demoted (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-1.6(a)). Your seniority for layoff purposes is based on the length of your service since regular appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-2.4(g)).

Your exposure in a layoff is higher than a permanent employee's. When permanent employees exercise lateral and demotional rights, the position held by the working test period employee with the least seniority is fourth in line to be taken, after vacancies and two kinds of provisional positions and before any permanent employee (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-2.2(d)4, N.J.S.A. 11A:8-1, subsection g). Your own rights run only to your probationary title, in the order of those first four steps (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-2.2(e)).

Losing a job to layoff during the period is treated differently from failing it. An employee laid off during the working test period is restored to the eligible list from which they were appointed (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-5.5(b)), and the Commission may revive an expired list to appoint an eligible whose working test period was ended by a layoff (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-3.4(a)4, N.J.S.A. 11A:4-6). If a layoff date is pushed back and you finish the period before you are displaced, your special reemployment rights are redetermined to reflect your new permanent status (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-1.6(e)).

Both layoff appeals, good faith and determination of rights, are open to employees in their working test period, within 20 days of the final notice of status (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-2.6). The layoff guide explains how those work.

Other workplace rights guides

This guide is one of a set on the rules that govern working for a New Jersey civil service employer. Start at the workplace rights overview for how the different appeal routes fit together.

• Telework in State service

  The two-day limit, the thirteen eligibility criteria, how denials and revocations are decided, and the three ways to challenge one.

• Vacation, sick and family leave

  How much leave you earn, what happens to unused days, sick leave at retirement, family leave, and the State and local split.

• Discipline and removal

  Major and minor discipline, notice and hearing before a penalty, the 20-day appeal and what you recover if you win.

• Layoffs

  The 45-day notice, how seniority is counted, lateral and demotional rights, special reemployment lists and the two layoff appeals.

• Pay, steps and overtime

  How steps and anniversary dates work, pay on promotion, demotion and reclassification, overtime categories, comp time and holiday pay.

• Classification appeals

  Out-of-title work, asking for a position review, what reclassification does to pay and status, and the 20-day appeal.

• Certification and removal from a list

  What a certification holds, how the employer disposes of it, the grounds for removing a name, list expiration and revival, and the 20-day appeal.

• Veterans preference

  Who qualifies, how the Adjutant General decides status, and how preference orders open competitive, promotional and noncompetitive appointments and layoffs.