N.J.A.C. 4A:4-4 Certification From Eligible Lists
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:4-4, Certification From Eligible Lists: 11 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 4A:4-4.1Need for certification
Nothing moves until the appointing authority asks. Filling a vacancy in the competitive division of the career service from an eligible list starts with a request for a certification of names for regular appointment, submitted in advance under procedures the Chairperson or designee sets, so that Commission staff can either issue or authorise the certification or say that no appropriate list exists. The second half of the rule covers the situation people actually live in: a permanent competitive position that has already been filled on a nonpermanent basis. There the Chairperson or designee decides whether a certification needs to be issued at all.
- 4A:4-4.2Issuance of certification
Three names for the first job, one more name for each additional job. That is what a complete certification means from a promotional or open competitive list, and an appointing authority is entitled to a complete one before making a permanent appointment. Reemployment lists work differently: from special, regular, police, sheriff's officer and fire reemployment lists, one interested eligible per permanent appointment. Eligibles with the same score share a rank, so a tie can put more than three names in front of the employer. Commission staff issue the certification with the names and addresses of the highest ranked eligibles and notify those eligibles at the last known address, which is why an out-of-date address on file matters. When fewer than three interested eligibles are certified the options narrow, and they narrow further where a provisional currently serving in the title appears on the certification: at that point the choice is a permanent appointment or vacating the position.
- 4A:4-4.3Certification from appropriate lists
An empty or short list is not the end of the process. Where no eligible list exists for a title, or the one that exists cannot produce a complete certification, the Chairperson or designee may authorise certification from the list for an appropriate title at the same or a higher level in the same or a related series. Four conditions have to hold together: substantially similar education and experience requirements, knowledge, skills and abilities that were actually evaluated in the examination process, a geographic scope of eligibility that covers where the original title sits, and use of the borrowed list only to supplement the existing one into a complete certification. A second route crosses jurisdictions. On a written request from the appointing authority, a common or similar State or local service list may be used the same way, and only people who have expressed an interest in working in that jurisdiction are certified. In local service, regular reemployment lists reach every appointing authority in the jurisdiction except school districts.
- 4A:4-4.4Limitation on number of times eligible is certified
Pass-overs get counted, and the count is three. A non-veteran eligible who has been certified to the same appointing authority from an open competitive list on three occasions, and passed over in favour of a lower ranked eligible every time, has their name withheld from future certifications to that same appointing authority. Certification to other appointing authorities is untouched by this rule. The employer can ask for that eligible to be recertified, and where it does, the certification is limited to that eligible plus any veteran eligible ranked equal or higher. Promotional lists carry no equivalent limit at all: every eligible on one is certified in order of rank for as long as they remain on the list.
- 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 operation of the appointing authority. The burden of proving the designation is necessary sits with the appointing authority. The request has to be signed by the agency or department head or designee and by the affirmative action officer, and sent to the Commission Division of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action, and it has to set out the purpose, the duties and the percentage of time they take, the post location, the shift, why a person without the characteristic cannot perform the duties, and what accommodations were considered and why they were not adopted. The EEO/AA Director accepts or refuses the request in writing, and the office audits existing designations and may reconsider or eliminate them. Anyone denied an employment opportunity because of a designation can contest it: a discrimination appeal in State service, a general appeal in local service.
- 4A:4-4.6Eligibles on military leave
Military leave does not cost you your place on the list. Interested eligibles on military leave continue to be certified, and the appointing authority may treat them as immediately available for appointment even though reporting for work may have to wait. On return from military duty, an appointed eligible has, once the working test period is successfully completed, the same rights, privileges and obligations as if they had served continuously in the title from the original effective date of the appointment.
- 4A:4-4.6ACertain persons returning from military service
Twelve months from the expiration of the old list. A member of the New Jersey National Guard or of a reserve component of the United States Armed Forces who was on an open competitive list, was called to active Federal duty before that list expired, and did not return until after it had, may apply within that window for placement on an active open competitive list. Three things are required: an examination application, the eligibility requirements stated in the announcement for the active list (the announced closing date having passed does not matter), and sufficient proof of the active duty, for which a completed Form DD214 counts. No application processing fee is charged. The active list has to be for the same title and jurisdiction and to have resulted from the same test mode, with entry level law enforcement excepted because that testing is announced Statewide. The score carried across is the final average earned on the test that produced the expired list, and the name is added for prospective appointment only, immediately after any disabled veterans and veterans. A different test mode means a make-up examination. Two active lists is the ceiling.
- 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. They run from the disqualification causes in 4A:4-6.1, through regular appointment to the title the list was promulgated for, inability or refusal to accept appointment, a criminal record that adversely relates to the employment sought, mail the postal authorities cannot deliver, non-compliance with the instructions on the notice of certification, discontinued residence in a jurisdiction the examination was limited to, and discontinued employment in the unit scope a promotional examination was limited to. Weighing a criminal record means weighing the seriousness of the crime, the circumstances, the date and the age of the eligible then, whether it was isolated, and evidence of rehabilitation. A pardon or an expungement prohibits removal, except for law enforcement, correction officer, correctional police officer, juvenile detention officer, firefighter and judiciary titles. Procedure has teeth. An appointing authority seeking removal must file everything it relies on by the disposition date and give the eligible copies, and failing either can defeat the request. Removal is appealed under 4A:4-6.3.
- 4A:4-4.8Disposition of a certification
The rule of three lives here. Given an open competitive or promotional certification, the appointing authority appoints one of the top three interested eligibles, subject to veterans preference: disabled veterans and then veterans are appointed in their order of ranking from an open competitive list, and where the first ranked eligible on a promotional list is a veteran, no non-veteran may be appointed. A reemployment certification leaves no choice, because only the one certified name is there to appoint. The disposition report goes back to the Commission by the disposition due date and names who is being appointed and when, with the salary added in local service. That due date can be pushed past the expiration of the list only to fill vacancies that already exist, and an anticipated vacancy does not count as an existing one. Missing it can produce a constructive appointment or other remedial action. Where the certification would displace a provisional who holds permanent status and layoff procedures have to be started, the appointing authority may ask in writing for another 45 days.
- 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. Military leave is one, along with an approved leave of absence in the case of promotional appointments, and those people may begin work when they return to active service. A limited revival or a statutory extension of the list is the second, though no appointment may be made beyond the statutory extension date. The third covers a certification made just before the list expires, where both the date of appointment and the date the eligible begins work have to fall no later than the disposition due date.
- 4A:4-4.10Certification of additional eligibles
Accepting the job is not quite the last step. Where an eligible who has accepted employment cannot begin work within three weeks, or within such other reasonable time as the appointing authority specifies, the appointing authority may consider that eligible unavailable and request that Commission staff certify additional names. What this section authorises is adding names to the certification. Coming off the list altogether is a separate question handled by the removal rule, which treats inability, unavailability or refusal to accept appointment as its own cause.