N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.1 General provisions

This is minor discipline, not major. What applies to you

Five working days is the line. Minor discipline is a formal written reprimand, or a suspension or fine of five working days or less. Anything above that is major discipline, and the notice, hearing and appeal machinery of a completely different subchapter applies instead. The causes are identical either way, so the same charge can arrive on either track depending on the penalty attached to it.

Before reading any further, check which service you are in, because this subchapter does not apply to local service at all. A local appointing authority may establish its own procedures for processing minor discipline and grievances, and what those look like varies by employer and by negotiated agreement. In State service the subchapter reaches minor discipline appeals of permanent career service employees and of people serving a working test period; appointing authorities may set up procedures for everybody else. It also cannot be used for a matter exclusively covered by a negotiated labour agreement.

The departmental step is where most of these end. If a negotiated agreement establishes minor discipline appeal procedures, that agreement is the applicable process and the rule steps aside. Without one, you request a departmental hearing within five days of receiving the notice of discipline, the hearing is held within 30 days of the request unless adjourned by consent, the appointing authority carries the burden of proof, and a final written disposition is due within 20 days of the hearing on form DPF-335. Silence past that period counts as a denial, which at least starts the next clock rather than trapping you.

Then comes the barrier that catches people out. You may appeal to the Commission within 20 days of the conclusion of departmental proceedings, provided you waive any further appeal rights under the agreement. But the Commission first decides whether the appeal presents issues of general applicability in the interpretation of law, rule or policy. If it does not, the appeal may be dismissed without any review of the merits, and that dismissal is a final administrative decision. Only once that threshold is met does the appointing authority carry the burden of proof at the Commission. A minor discipline appeal that is entirely about your own facts can end without anybody weighing whether the charge was true.

One route reaches a hearing on volume rather than principle. A minor discipline matter may be heard by the Commission or referred to the Office of Administrative Law for your last suspension or fine of five working days or less where the aggregate suspended or fined days in a calendar year, counting that one, reach 15 working days, or where you receive more than three such suspensions or fines in a calendar year. A pattern of small penalties is treated differently from a single one.

What counts as an issue of general applicability is not defined in the rule, so how much of your appeal has to be about the interpretation of law, rule or policy rather than about you is worked out case by case.

Related on this site: /discipline-removal

Written by the NJ Civil Service Navigator editorial team. Every statement here traces to the rules cited on this page. It is not legal advice, and a collective agreement may change how these rules apply to you.