N.J.A.C. 4A:6 Leaves, Hours of Work, and Employee Development

In local service the appointing authority sets the types of leave and the procedures, but not from a blank page.

Two ladders, and they are not the same.

Sick leave is one of the places where the State figure and the local floor land on the same number: 15 working days credited at the beginning of each calendar year, an entitlement in State service and a minimum in local service.

Two clocks govern calling in sick in State service, and which one is yours depends on the unit.

You can end up owing the State leave, and this section is the arithmetic for it.

Pregnancy disability leave in State service is not built as a separate entitlement with rules of its own.

Emergencies first, then religious holidays, then personal matters.

One year is the ceiling, and even that takes two approvals.

Which force you serve in decides how many paid days you get.

The timing is most of the rule.

Paperwork on both ends, and a five-day cap.

Discretionary, State service only, and gated twice.

Narrow, and paid.

Forty-one words, and the operative one is "may".

Six years is the outer limit, and it runs from the day the leave begins rather than from anything about the office.

Two unrelated things share this section, both of them State service.

Commuting time counts.

Whether the appearance is paid turns on two questions: is it part of the job, and are you a party.

Nothing in this section gives anybody a day off.

Twelve weeks in any 24-month period, under the New Jersey Family Leave Act, and employees in both State and local service may be eligible.

The Civil Service Commission does not enforce this one.

Four gates stand between a State employee and a day of donated leave: one year of continuous State service, exhaustion of all accrued sick, vacation and administrative leave along with any sick leave injury benefits and compensatory time off, no discipline in the previous two years for chronic or excessive absenteeism, chronic or excessive lateness or abuse of leave, and a qualifying reason.

The stated purpose is to lessen the need for reductions in force.

The volunteering is paid; getting there is not.

Local appointing authorities set their own hours of work, subject to whatever negotiations requirements apply.

Four things have to be true at once before a State job title is assigned a fixed workweek.

Overtime begins on the 172nd hour.

Irregular hours, by design.

Holidays authorized by law or Executive Order are days off with regular pay for full-time State employees, and part-time employees working a constant percentage of a full week receive holiday leave credit in proportion.

The Governor, or the Governor's designee, decides in consultation with the Office of Emergency Management whether inclement weather or another adverse situation requires curtailing State operations, and whether the curtailment is Statewide, regional or narrower.

Flexitime divides the day into core time, when everybody must be present, and flexible time on either side of it, when employees choose their arrival and departure subject to appointing authority approval.

Unlike flexitime, this one is not optional: State appointing authorities shall establish alternative workweek programs, such as a four-day week, to meet operational or employee needs.

Shifting when the doors open rather than how long anyone works.

Supplemental compensation on retirement, or SCOR, is a State service payment, and eligibility turns on status and on how the employment ends.

Resign, retire or be removed, and the SCOR clock restarts: sick leave is computed only from the date of return to employment.

Fifteen thousand dollars is the ceiling on SCOR for any employee, whatever the sick leave balance says.

Form DPF-279, filed within one year of the effective date of retirement, and only after the official notice of retirement approval has come from the pension board or authority.

Sick leave can travel with an intergovernmental transfer made under N.J.A.C.

Local appointing authorities may run human resource development programs of their own, and may take part in the programs set out in this subchapter subject to the Chairperson's terms and approval.

CLIP, the Center for Learning and Improving Performance, holds a near-monopoly on State employee training.

A list, not a test.

The Certified Public Manager Program is for supervisors and managers in State service, developed and administered by CLIP.

Career development programs prepare employees to move to new assignments or career opportunities, and a State department or agency needs the CLIP manager's written approval before running one.

Every State department and agency has to establish a tuition aid program, subject to available appropriations, for eligible employees taking undergraduate, graduate, technical or supplemental coursework at an accredited institution that relates to current or planned job responsibilities.

Two months at the shortest, 12 at the longest.

Internship programs in State service come in three shapes.

Confidentiality is the design of the Employee Advisory Service.

In local service an employee performance evaluation program is optional, but using one in promotions or layoff requires review and approval by the Chairperson first.

The performance plan is built jointly by the employee and the supervisor, and an employee who disagrees with the plan that results may note the disagreement.

An annual rating below Successful denies the anniversary date increment, on either scale.

Local appointing authorities may establish and administer awards programs, and the rule says nothing further about them.

Seven people, each employed in a different Executive Branch department, appointed by the Governor on the Chairperson's nomination for staggered three-year terms, serving without compensation beyond actual and necessary expenses and limited to two consecutive full terms.

Two sets of books.

Four categories are named and the list is expressly open.

A suggestion is a written proposal, from one person or a team, that will produce notable economy or improvement in an operation of State government, or improve service to the public, employee safety or employee welfare.

Five hundred dollars is the line that decides who approves an award.

Cash awards run from $50.00 to $10,000 for each approved suggestion, or the suggester may take up to two days of paid time off instead, valued at their own daily rate.

Recognition arrives at every five years of employment, for all State employees, whatever their type of appointment.

Departments and agencies are encouraged rather than required to recognize their own employees, and the rule names attendance, safety, productivity, customer service, and employee of the year or month schemes without closing the list.

Twenty days, unless a different period is stated, running from when the appellant had notice of the decision or should reasonably have known of it.

Four definitions, and they operate only inside the telework subchapter.

State service only.

Thirteen criteria decide whether a State employee is approved for telework, and two are about standing rather than the job: the performance evaluation system must reflect the ability to meet minimum performance expectations, and anyone currently subject to performance-based corrective action is ineligible, with employees on a performance improvement plan named explicitly.

Performance requirements for teleworking employees are in general the same as for everyone else, and nothing in a telework program touches the appointing authority's right to assign work or ask about its status.

A supervisor may direct a scheduled teleworker to report to the official reporting location or to the field for emergent operational reasons, and the rule lists several: work that cannot be done remotely, unanticipated staffing or workload requirements, emergent meetings, assignments that cannot be received remotely, emergent training or travel needs, and covering the absences of others.

Records created at home are public records.

Any State appointing authority without an existing alternative workweek program has to create one.

Three routes, and no fourth.