N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.2 Vacation leave

Your vacation leave

Read the general provisions section before this one, because it decides how much of this rule you get. In local service the appointing authority establishes types of leave and procedures, and employees are entitled under the leave subchapter to subsections (b) through (h) of this section and nothing else. Subsection (a), the State schedule, is not among them. Vacation and sick leave for local police officers and firefighters are set by local ordinance under separate statutes, so a municipal officer reading this rule may be reading the wrong document entirely.

The two schedules are genuinely different. Full-time State career service employees get 12 working days from the first full calendar year up to five years of continuous service, 15 after five and up to 12 years, 20 after 12 and up to 20 years, and 25 over 20 years. Full-time local employees get at least 12 up to 10 years, at least 15 after 10 and up to 20 years, and at least 20 after 20 years. The local figures are minimums, so a local employer can be more generous and often is by agreement; the State figures are the entitlement. Both services share the first-year rule: one working day for the initial month if you started between the 1st and the 8th, half a day if between the 9th and the 23rd, then one working day per month of service to the end of that calendar year.

Leave is credited at the beginning of each calendar year in anticipation of continued employment, which is why the increases are timed the way they are. An increase is granted at the beginning of the calendar year in which the service requirement will be met, rather than on the anniversary. If leave without pay pushes the year in which you actually hit the milestone, you are liable for the increased leave that was not earned.

Continuous service is a defined term here and not the ordinary one. It means employment for the same jurisdiction without actual interruption by resignation, retirement or removal, or employment for different jurisdictions where the intergovernmental transfer requirements are met. Service before a layoff counts where you were appointed from a special reemployment list. A suspension or leave without pay does not break continuous service, but the time spent on it does not count toward the years, except for military leave, furlough extension leave, leave for a job-related injury under the workers compensation statute, and voluntary furlough. The transfer bridge closes for a firefighter, and for a law enforcement officer, sheriff's officer or county correction officer who waived accumulated seniority rights.

Carrying leave forward is narrower than most people assume. Vacation not used in a calendar year because of business necessity shall be used during the next succeeding year only. Three exceptions accumulate instead: State employees who could not take leave because of duties directly related to a governor-declared state of emergency, State employees called to active duty in the situations the rule lists, and, at the appointing authority's discretion, local employees kept from leave by a declared state of emergency. Each of those runs until the leave is used or paid out under a plan the appointing authority establishes and the Chairperson approves.

Three things do not depend on any of that. An employee leaving State or local service is paid for unused earned vacation leave, including after an intergovernmental transfer. On death, unused vacation is paid to the estate. And exhausting your vacation in one year earns you no more until the next calendar year begins. Part-time and 10-month employees receive a proportionate amount, and in State service vacation may be granted, recorded and tracked in hours.

Scheduling is where the rule stops. Appointing authorities may establish procedures for scheduling vacation leave, and where leave procedures are not set by the subchapter they establish those too, subject to applicable negotiations requirements. When you can actually take the days is a matter for your employer and your agreement.

Related on this site: /jurisdiction/state, /jurisdiction/local

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.