NJ State Telework Rules

Who the rule covers

The subchapter covers employees in the career, unclassified and senior executive services (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(a)), and it is written for State service. State boards and authorities that are not subject to Title 11A may choose to follow it. State colleges and universities are outside it, although they may consult it when setting up their own programs.

Its State scope comes from two places. The subchapter is titled "Telework program: State service", and it describes State appointing authorities letting employees telework while delivering services to the Executive Branch (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(c)). County and municipal employees are outside it, so a local employee's telework arrangement comes from that employer's own policy and any union contract.

How many days you can telework

A department's telework plan may not allow more than two days of telework in a calendar week (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(d)2). The department also has to keep a record of which days each employee worked at the official reporting location and which days they teleworked (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(d)3).

Even two days is not promised. You pick preferred recurring days on your application, and the rule says that preference is not a guaranteed approval: the department offers and approves schedules based on its operational needs (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(c)1).

Extra days are possible only in emergent circumstances and only with approval from the Governor's Office (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.5(c)). The rule gives three examples: a public health emergency that closes an office, a health or safety problem that closes one (weather, fire, a building or systems failure), or any other emergent operational need that keeps employees out of their office.

Who is eligible

A position suits telework when its duties are portable: contact with colleagues and clients can be handled by video, phone or email, the reference material is reachable electronically, and the work can be done securely without breaking any law, rule or policy (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(a)). On top of that, the employee has to meet every one of the criteria in N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(b):

• Your performance evaluation shows you meeting minimum expectations.
• You are not under ongoing performance-based corrective action. Anyone on a performance improvement plan is ineligible.
• Your duties and your performance expectations can both be met remotely.
• Any specialized equipment, reference material, classified or sensitive information and IT systems you need can be reached remotely, and securely.
• Internet access is your responsibility.
• You can do your training remotely, and you can be adequately supervised remotely.
• The department's operational needs allow the work to be done remotely, and the amount of direct customer contact does not rule it out.
• Telework can be done consistently with the New Jersey First Act, N.J.S.A. 52:14-7.

You also have to submit the department's eligibility application, which doubles as your agreement to meet its telework expectations, and complete a self-assessment the department designs (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(c)). Mandatory telework training has to be finished before you start, and skipping it is grounds for revocation (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(f)). A department may also ask for documentation that your home worksite meets safety and security standards (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(d)).

New hires and transfers have to wait. If you are eligible, you can start teleworking once you successfully finish your working test period, or 120 calendar days after your appointment if your title has no working test period (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(g)).

How eligibility is decided, and what a denial must say

The decision has to rest on an individualized assessment of your duties and your ability to meet the criteria. The one exception is a whole job title: a department may conclude, on operational needs, that everyone in a title cannot work remotely, and the rule gives direct care workers as the example (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(e)).

When you and your supervisor disagree, the rule sets a sequence (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(e)1 through 6):

1. Supervisor states the criteria in writing. Your supervisor identifies to human resources, in writing, the specific eligibility criteria they believe you do not meet.
2. Ask for a consultation. You may request a consultation with your supervisor and human resources about the disputed eligibility, and you have the right to union representation there.
3. HR recommends. Human resources makes a recommendation to the department's senior leadership designee.
4. Senior leadership decides. The senior leadership designee makes the final determination. A denial must set out, in writing, the specific reasons your duties cannot be done remotely without interfering with operational needs.
5. Ask again if the reasons change. If the stated reasons or operational needs change, you can ask the department in writing to reconsider.

When a disputed case ends in approval, the decision has to set out its terms, including how many days a week you telework and whether you can combine telework with an alternative workweek (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(e)4).

When telework can be taken away

Teleworkers are held, in general, to the same performance requirements as everyone else, and the department keeps its right to assign work and check on its status (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.4(a)). Within your first 45 days of telework you and your supervisor must meet in person at your regular workplace to go over performance expectations (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.4(a)1).

N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.4 sets two grounds for revocation, performance and operational needs, and they come with different protections. N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(f) adds a third: failing to complete mandatory telework training, which carries none of the corrective-plan steps below.

An operational-needs change does not have to be a full revocation. The schedule can be adjusted temporarily or permanently, through the same process (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.4(b)).

Being called in on a telework day

A supervisor can direct you to report to the office or the field on a scheduled telework day for emergent operational reasons: work that cannot be done remotely, unexpected staffing or workload, emergent meetings, training or travel, covering for absent colleagues, and similar situations (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.5(a)). The department has to give as much notice as possible, and you and management are to make every effort to move the telework day to another day in the same week.

If something at home stops you working, such as an equipment failure or a service interruption, you must tell the department immediately (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.5(b), 4A:6-7.6(f)). It can direct you to report in, or approve paid leave or leave without pay, as appropriate.

Snow days and office closures

When the Governor curtails State operations for weather or another adverse situation, the determination includes whether approved teleworkers can still telework. If it says they can, every employee approved for the telework program is required to telework that day, whether they were scheduled to be in the office or at home (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-2.5(a)1). An approved teleworker who cannot work remotely that day has to notify the department immediately and make other arrangements.

Telework and a four-day week

Every department must have an alternative workweek program, such as a four-day week (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.7(a), 4A:6-2.7(a)). Employees eligible for both may use both, as long as operational needs allow it. In a week when you take your alternative workweek day, you can telework no more than one day, except in emergent circumstances.

Whether you can combine the two is at the department's sole discretion, and the rule says that determination is not appealable (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.7(a)).

If your duties rule out telework entirely, the department must still let you take part in an alternative workweek or a flexitime program, provided you are eligible and operations allow it (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.7(b)).

Your home worksite, equipment and records

You are responsible for keeping a home worksite that is safe and ergonomically suitable, and the department must specify what equipment or technology access you need and who provides it (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.6(f)). State laptops and similar assets stay State property, and while one is issued to you, you are responsible for its physical security (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.6(c)). You may use a personal device for State business only with the department's permission or at its direction (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.6(a)).

Two of the data rules surprise people. In-person work meetings with colleagues or clients may not be held at your home worksite; they happen by phone or video, or in person at a State office (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.6(e)). And records you create while teleworking are public records, subject to the State's records retention law and the Open Public Records Act, including records on a personal device (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.6(d)).

How to challenge a denial, revocation or adjustment

N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.8 lists three routes and says a telework decision may be challenged only through them. Which one applies depends on why you think the decision was wrong.

The grievance route is the one most denials and revocations go down, and it carries the weakest standard of review. A Commission grievance appeal has to raise an issue of general applicability in interpreting a law, rule or policy, or it can be dismissed without a look at the merits, and the employee carries the burden of proof (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.7(b), (f)). For telework decisions based on operational needs, the Commission must uphold the department unless its determination was an abuse of discretion (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.8(a)3).

The internal steps feed the appeal. A Commission grievance appeal includes all written records and decisions from the departmental reviews (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.7(c)), so the written reasons from a consultation under N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.3(e) or 4A:6-7.4(b) become part of what it reviews. One gap to know about: the grievance subchapter covers employees in the career and unclassified services (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.1(e)2) and does not list the senior executive service.

Telework as a reasonable accommodation

Telework can be requested as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and other State and Federal law, and the department reviews it as it would any accommodation request, through its ADA and human resources channels (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(f), 4A:6-7.1). That is a separate track from the telework program's eligibility process, and a denial is challenged by a discrimination complaint rather than a grievance (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.8(a)1). The rule itself does not say whether the two-day limit binds an accommodation, but in the B.O. decision described below, which reviewed a decision made under the earlier pilot, the Commission said the in-office requirement does not prohibit full-time remote work as a reasonable accommodation.

What the Commission has decided since the rule took effect

No published Commission decision on a grievance under N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.8 had been found as of October 20, 2026. Three telework decisions issued since the rule took effect are worth knowing. B.O. and R.M. challenged decisions made under the earlier pilot program, and only B.O. refers to the new rule, so read them as the Commission's view of telework disputes rather than as applications of N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7. Each was decided on its own record.

• B.O., Department of Labor and Workforce Development (CSC Docket No. 2024-1615, decided April 29, 2026). A discrimination appeal, sent back for further investigation. The Commission said the rule's in-office requirement does not prohibit an agency from allowing full-time remote work as a reasonable accommodation. Read the decision
• J.S., Department of Community Affairs (CSC Docket No. 2025-2617, decided December 17, 2025). A request for full-time telework as an accommodation; the appeal was denied. Read the decision
• R.M., Department of Health (CSC Docket Nos. 2025-223 and 2025-907, decided January 21, 2026). The employee said a telework denial was retaliation; the appeal was denied. Read the decision

Where the rule came from

The rule was proposed in the New Jersey Register on May 5, 2025 (57 N.J.R. 865(a)), adopted on October 1, 2025 and took effect on November 3, 2025 (57 N.J.R. 2475(c)). The Commission adopted it under its general rulemaking power in N.J.S.A. 11A:6-24, not under a telework statute. It turned the Model Telework Pilot Program, which the Commission created by order in 2022, into a rule, and the pilot stayed in effect for each department until that department's plan was approved. The same action amended the curtailment rule in N.J.A.C. 4A:6-2.5 and the alternative workweek rule in N.J.A.C. 4A:6-2.7. How the rule got from a 2020 emergency measure to this subchapter covers the pilot years, the public comments and what changed on adoption.

How department plans are approved

Every appointing authority had to submit a written telework plan to the Commission Chair for approval by January 2, 2026, and a new appointing authority has 90 days from its creation (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(d)). A department may not run a telework program until its plan is approved.

Unions see the plan first. The department has to send its proposed plan to the relevant unions at least 20 calendar days before submitting it, and pass any union comments it receives, with its responses, to the Chair (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(d)1). The Chair reviews those comments and decides within 30 calendar days, approving the plan or ordering changes that the department must make within 14 days (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.2(e)). The details of your own program are in your department's approved plan.

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.

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