N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7 Other Appointments or Employee Movements
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:4-7, Other Appointments or Employee Movements: 13 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 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. In State service the unit is the appointing authority, with the Department of Human Services treated as a single appointing authority for this subchapter. In local service it is a department or separate agency within the same county or municipality, and a school district is a separate jurisdiction altogether. Consent splits the same way. A permanent transfer in local service needs both organizational units to agree plus the approval of the Chairperson; in State service the affected employee has to agree as well, except where functions or operations are being transferred or combined across unit lines. Any party may withdraw consent before the effective date. Two shorter forms exist and neither depends on your agreement: a temporary transfer of up to six months, and an emergency transfer of up to 30 days where the receiving appointing authority certifies that failing to move you will result in harm to persons or property. An involuntary transfer carries at least 30 days written notice giving the receiving unit, the effective date and the reason.
- 4A:4-7.1AIntergovernmental transfers
Two different things carry this name. One is a permanent employee moving between jurisdictions operating under Title 11A. The other is an appointment by a Title 11A jurisdiction within one year of the effective date of a layoff for economy or efficiency that separated the employee from a different Title 11A jurisdiction. Either way it takes written consent from the sending jurisdiction where there is one, the receiving jurisdiction and the employee, plus approval by the Chairperson or designee. The receiving jurisdiction may waive its residency ordinance to take you, although transferring police officers and firefighters must maintain New Jersey residency. You move to a title substantially at the same level, and an existing open competitive or promotional list in the receiving jurisdiction is not a bar to the transfer. Uniformed staff meet two extra limits. Permanent law enforcement and firefighter employees are eligible only for transfer to the corresponding entry-level title in the receiving jurisdiction. And a law enforcement officer, sheriff's officer or county correction officer may waive accumulated sick leave and seniority rights, which reaches into promotional, layoff and demotional rights under 4A:4-7.4.
- 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. Nothing about the title changes, which is why the rule hands the decision entirely to the discretion of the head of the organizational unit. The one handle on it is good faith. Challenging a reassignment as disguised discipline runs under the appeals section for this subchapter, where the burden of proof is on the employee.
- 4A:4-7.3Relocation assistance: State service
State service only, and subject to available appropriations. A permanent employee transferred or reassigned on a permanent basis to a new work location because an office or unit relocated, or because a State operation closed or was phased down in anticipation of closing, may be allowed relocation assistance if the new job site is at least 25 miles from the previous one. Three forms exist. A commutation allowance on the extra round trip mileage, paid at the standard State Mileage Allowance, capped at six months from the effective date of the transfer, and unavailable to anyone offered fully paid car pooling, van pooling or mass transit. A one-time moving expense allowance of up to $1,000 for shipping household items. And a relocation allowance of up to $1,000 for terminating a lease or for the costs of selling and buying a home. The last two require the move to happen within a year of the transfer and require the employee to show the change of domicile was solely to get closer to the job site. You take the commutation allowance or the other two, not both.
- 4A:4-7.4Retention of rights
What follows you when you move, and what does not. A temporary transfer keeps your promotional rights in the promotional unit scope you came from. A permanent transfer, an intergovernmental transfer or a reassignment keeps accumulated seniority or service for determining promotional, layoff and demotional rights and sick and vacation leave entitlements, and in State service also keeps your rate of compensation, anniversary date and administrative leave entitlements. Then the subtractions. A permanent transfer caused by a combining of functions or operations keeps promotional rights in the prior unit scope only for promotional examinations you had already filed for or taken. A reassignment from one promotional unit scope to another keeps no promotional rights in the former unit at all. And law enforcement officers, including sheriff's officers and county correction officers, who waived accumulated seniority on an intergovernmental transfer, along with all firefighters, do not retain that seniority.
- 4A:4-7.5Transfer during a working test period
Being in a working test period closes off transfers almost entirely. Two things can still move you, and neither is something you set in motion: a transfer or combining of functions or operations, and someone exercising lateral displacement rights in the course of layoff procedures. Where either happens and the transfer is permanent, you are permitted to complete the working test period in the new organizational unit. How long that period runs is set elsewhere, and it is measured in active service rather than calendar time.
- 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. Where they are, permanent status carries over, along with accumulated seniority or service for promotional, layoff and demotional rights and sick and vacation entitlements, and in State service the anniversary date, administrative leave entitlement and rate of compensation as adjusted for workweek, work year and employee relations grouping. Where they are not, you are appointed pending examination and satisfactory completion of a working test period, and failing either restores you to your permanent title unless you have been disqualified for further employment. Having previously held the title permanently during current continuous service waives the examination and aggregates the seniority. In State service the two titles must carry the same class code, movement between variants of a title counts as a lateral title change, and a move from the noncompetitive to the competitive division is a promotion instead.
- 4A:4-7.7Appeals
Two sentences, and the second one is the sting. The first says a transfer, a reassignment or a lateral title change may not be used as part of a disciplinary action except where disciplinary procedures have actually been used, which is the rule against moving somebody as punishment without charging them. The second says that when an employee challenges the good faith of a transfer, a reassignment or a lateral title change, the burden of proof is on the employee. The employer does not have to justify the move; the employee has to establish bad faith.
- 4A:4-7.8Voluntary demotion
The definition splits by service. In local service a voluntary demotion is the voluntary movement of a permanent employee to a lower title; in State service it is voluntary movement to another title with a lower class code inside the same organizational unit. Permanent status and seniority survive where the lower title is a related one, judged by the layoff criteria in 4A:8-2.1, and permanent status also survives where you previously held the title permanently during current continuous service, with all that permanent continuous service aggregated for seniority. Where neither is true you are appointed pending examination and a working test period, and failing either restores you to your permanent title unless you have been disqualified for further employment. Two things to watch. The appointing authority may require a written waiver of layoff rights from the higher title during the working test period, and if a layoff arrives in that window your layoff rights rest only on the probationary title. Moving back up later aggregates seniority only where the demotion was for a temporary loss of required licensure, was agreed by both sides, and was for a set period of no more than one year.
- 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. That is the whole of this section and it is the part people do not expect: the move is not a transfer, so permanent status in the old title ends. What survives is accumulated service, for promotional eligibility and scoring, for sick and vacation leave entitlements, for seniority in a layoff, and in State service for administrative leave entitlements. You may ask to be placed on the regular reemployment list for the previous title. And the new appointing authority has to tell you that your permanent status is being resigned before the new appointment, not after it.
- 4A:4-7.10Regular reemployment
A door back in, but it opens from the employer side. A permanent employee who resigned in good standing, received a general resignation, retired or took a voluntary demotion may ask to be considered for reemployment by telling their appointing authority they are available. The name goes onto a reemployment list only where that appointing authority recommends the reemployment as in the best interest of the service and the Chairperson or designee places it there. Once listed, a regular reemployment list is subject to certification to every appointing authority in the jurisdiction. Duration is three years from the date of resignation, retirement or voluntary demotion unless the list is extended, and a request has to be made inside that window. Police, sheriff's officer and fire reemployment lists have unlimited duration. Seniority starts again on the date of regular reemployment.
- 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. Where functions of a department, agency or unit of a political subdivision operating under Title 11A are transferred, consolidated, unified, absorbed or combined with those of the State or another Title 11A subdivision, Commission staff approve the transfer of some or all affected employees on request of both appointing authorities. Status is not disturbed: anyone holding permanent or probationary status in a career service title continues to hold it in the receiving unit, which is one of the two situations in which a working test period survives a move. Seniority and leave entitlements are then calculated as if the entire period of service had been served in the receiving unit. If the consolidation makes positions unnecessary and they are abolished, the affected employees get the full set of layoff and special reemployment rights.
- 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. Once that exists, a permanent employee may be reinstated, and the reinstatement takes priority over appointment from any eligible list except a special reemployment list, so people carrying layoff rights still come first. Seniority is the aggregate of permanent service in the permanent title before the retirement and after the reinstatement. The years spent on disability retirement do not count toward it.