N.J.A.C. 4A:4 Selection and Appointment
Chapter 4 is the hiring chapter, and it is the largest in Title 4A. It runs from the types of appointment (permanent, provisional, temporary, emergency) through examinations, eligible lists, certification and appointment, the working test period, disqualification and appeals, and finally transfers a
Chapter 4 is the hiring chapter, and it is the largest in Title 4A. It runs from the types of appointment (permanent, provisional, temporary, emergency) through examinations, eligible lists, certification and appointment, the working test period, disqualification and appeals, and finally transfers and other movements between jobs. If you are asking why you were on a list but not appointed, the answer is in subchapter 4. If you are provisional and worried about it, start at 4A:4-1.5.
Subchapter 1. Types of Appointments
- 4A:4-1.1Career service appointments
Three routes into the career service, and they differ by how much testing stands in the way.
- 4A:4-1.2Senior executive service appointments: State service
A senior executive service appointment may be made to any position the Civil Service Commission has allocated to the senior executive service.
- 4A:4-1.3Unclassified appointments
Forty four words, and the second sentence is the one that matters: the permanent appointment rights of Title 11A do not apply to unclassified appointments.
- 4A:4-1.4Conditional regular appointments
A holding pattern for appointments that might have to be undone.
- 4A:4-1.5Provisional appointments
A provisional appointment can only be made in the competitive division, and only when three things are all true at once.
- 4A:4-1.6Interim appointments
When somebody is away but still holds the job, whoever fills it is an interim appointee.
- 4A:4-1.7Temporary appointments
Short work, formally bounded.
- 4A:4-1.8Emergency appointments
Thirty seven words covering the shortest appointment in the code.
- 4A:4-1.9Return of employees to their permanent titles
The safety net for anybody who already had permanent status and then took something else on.
- 4A:4-1.10Approval of appointments by Civil Service Commission
Nothing is final until the Commission approves it.
- 4A:4-1.11(Reserved)
Reserved. No rule text is currently published at this citation.
Subchapter 2. Competitive Examinations
- 4A:4-2.1Announcements and applications
Open competitive announcements go up daily on the Civil Service Commission web site, and that site is also where the applications come from.
- 4A:4-2.2Types of examinations
An examination here is not necessarily a written test.
- 4A:4-2.3Open competitive examinations
Promotion is the default.
- 4A:4-2.4Promotional title scope: local service
Local service only; State service has its own scope rule at 4A:4-2.5.
- 4A:4-2.5Promotional title scope: State service
State service, and the rule starts by sorting every title into one of three categories by the education it requires.
- 4A:4-2.6Eligibility for promotional examination
One year of continuous permanent service, aggregating to a year immediately before the announced closing date, in a title the examination is open to.
- 4A:4-2.7Promotion upon waiver of competitive examination
A promotion can happen without anybody sitting the examination.
- 4A:4-2.8Scheduling of examinations
Arrive late and whether you get in depends on what kind of test it is.
- 4A:4-2.9Make-up examinations
Two different lists of acceptable reasons, and which one applies depends on the examination.
- 4A:4-2.10Conduct and security of examinations
Bringing a cellphone into the building is a prohibited action, not merely into the test room, and work-issued phones count, as does any type of electronic recording or imaging device.
- 4A:4-2.11Residence standards
Two residency requirements can be running at once: the New Jersey principal residence requirement under P.L.
- 4A:4-2.12Professional qualifications substitution program
Work experience can stand in for education, year for year, but only where the examination has been designated for it.
- 4A:4-2.13(Reserved)
Reserved. No rule text is currently published at this citation.
- 4A:4-2.14Accommodation and waiver of examinations for persons with disabilities
Accommodation is asked for on the application itself, by indicating the request there; Commission staff then make reasonable accommodation where appropriate and tell the candidate the arrangements.
- 4A:4-2.15Rating of examinations
Performance rating credit is a State service matter.
- 4A:4-2.16Retention and inspection of examination records
Some of it is public.
- 4A:4-2.17Application processing fees
Twenty-five dollars per application, open competitive and promotional alike, reduced to 15 dollars for veterans.
Subchapter 3. Eligible Lists
- 4A:4-3.1Types of eligible lists
Five kinds of list, and which one you are on decides a great deal afterwards.
- 4A:4-3.2Order of names on eligible lists
Rank order is not simply score order.
- 4A:4-3.3Duration and cancellation of eligible lists
Three years from the date of establishment for open competitive and promotional lists, unless the Chairperson or designee decides a shorter period fits the circumstances.
- 4A:4-3.4Revival of eligible lists
An expired list is not necessarily finished with.
- 4A:4-3.5Consolidation of eligible lists
When two successive examinations for the same title produce two lists, the Chairperson or designee may merge them by one or more of three methods: placing the first name on the later list after the last name on the prior list, supplement...
- 4A:4-3.6Additions to eligible lists
Names can be added to a list at any point during its life, but only for five reasons: a make-up examination was given and the candidate passed, an error by the Civil Service Commission needs correcting, an appeal decision needs implement...
- 4A:4-3.7Priority of eligible lists
Where more than one current list exists for a title, the order is fixed, and special reemployment appears in it twice.
- 4A:4-3.8Correction of errors
Civil Service Commission staff may correct an error at any time during the life of an eligible list, and a correction can change where somebody ranks.
- 4A:4-3.9Reemployment program for certain law enforcement officers and firefighters
A hiring route that runs outside the eligible lists, and it is local.
- 4A:4-3.10Procedures for reemployment program for certain law enforcement officers and firefighters
Getting on the list is on you.
Subchapter 4. Certification From Eligible Lists
- 4A:4-4.1Need for certification
Nothing moves until the appointing authority asks.
- 4A:4-4.2Issuance of certification
Three names for the first job, one more name for each additional job.
- 4A:4-4.3Certification from appropriate lists
An empty or short list is not the end of the process.
- 4A:4-4.4Limitation on number of times eligible is certified
Pass-overs get counted, and the count is three.
- 4A:4-4.5Certifications limited to persons of a particular sex, religion, or national origin
A certification can be limited to eligibles of a particular sex, religion or national origin, but only where that characteristic is a bona fide occupational qualification essential to successful job performance and to the normal operatio...
- 4A:4-4.6Eligibles on military leave
Military leave does not cost you your place on the list.
- 4A:4-4.6ACertain persons returning from military service
Twelve months from the expiration of the old list.
- 4A:4-4.7Removal of names
Eleven reasons a name comes off an eligible list, and the list is the answer to why yours did.
- 4A:4-4.8Disposition of a certification
The rule of three lives here.
- 4A:4-4.9Date of appointment
An eligible cannot be appointed and begin work after the eligible list has expired, and the three exceptions to that are narrow.
- 4A:4-4.10Certification of additional eligibles
Accepting the job is not quite the last step.
Subchapter 5. Working Test Period
- 4A:4-5.1General provisions
The working test period is formally part of the examination, not a separate probation bolted onto the end of hiring.
- 4A:4-5.2Duration
How long it lasts, and when the clock starts.
- 4A:4-5.3Progress reports
You are entitled to see how it is going before it ends.
- 4A:4-5.4Working test period appeals
Forty two words that answer the question everybody in a working test period is asking, and then send them somewhere else for the part that matters.
- 4A:4-5.5Restoration to eligible list or former title
Losing a working test period does not have to mean losing the list.
Subchapter 6. Examination and Selection Disqualification and Appeals
- 4A:4-6.1Examination and selection disqualification
Nine grounds on which a person may be denied examination eligibility or appointment, and the ninth is a catch-all for other sufficient reasons.
- 4A:4-6.2Actions against disqualified persons
One finding, seven possible consequences, and they land at very different points in a career.
- 4A:4-6.3Examination and selection appeals
Which appeal you are filing decides which rule governs it, and this section does the routing.
- 4A:4-6.4Review of examination items, scoring, and administration
One deadline in this section expires the same day the examination does: a challenge to the manner in which an examination was administered must be filed in writing at the examination site, on the day of the examination.
- 4A:4-6.5Medical and/or psychological disqualification appeals
This is the one examination appeal where the appointing authority carries the burden of proof rather than the candidate.
- 4A:4-6.6Disqualification appeals
Twenty days from notice of the action, decision or situation being appealed.
Subchapter 7. Other Appointments or Employee Movements
- 4A:4-7.1Transfers within the same governmental jurisdiction
What counts as a transfer depends on which service you are in, because it depends on what an organizational unit is.
- 4A:4-7.1AIntergovernmental transfers
Two different things carry this name.
- 4A:4-7.2Reassignments
A reassignment moves you inside your organizational unit and inside your title: a new job function, a different shift, a different location or a different supervisor.
- 4A:4-7.3Relocation assistance: State service
State service only, and subject to available appropriations.
- 4A:4-7.4Retention of rights
What follows you when you move, and what does not.
- 4A:4-7.5Transfer during a working test period
Being in a working test period closes off transfers almost entirely.
- 4A:4-7.6Lateral title change
Whether a sideways move costs you permanent status turns on one test: are the nature of the work and the education and experience requirements of the two titles substantially similar, measured by the same standard layoffs use in 4A:8-2.1.
- 4A:4-7.7Appeals
Two sentences, and the second one is the sting.
- 4A:4-7.8Voluntary demotion
The definition splits by service.
- 4A:4-7.9Resignation/new appointment
Taking a job elsewhere in your own jurisdiction off an open competitive list is treated as a resignation from the title you held permanently.
- 4A:4-7.10Regular reemployment
A door back in, but it opens from the employer side.
- 4A:4-7.11Transfer or combining of functions
When one Title 11A employer absorbs the functions of another, the employees can come across with them.
- 4A:4-7.12Reinstatement following disability retirement
Coming back from a disability retirement starts with a determination from the Division of Pensions that the retiree is no longer disabled.