N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1 Leaves of Absence
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1, Leaves of Absence: 26 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 4A:6-1.1General provisions
In local service the appointing authority sets the types of leave and the procedures, but not from a blank page. Local employees are entitled to vacation leave under 4A:6-1.2(b) through (h), sick leave under 4A:6-1.3(a) through (h), military leave, gubernatorial appointment leave, convention leave, elective office leave, State family leave and Federal family and medical leave. A local appointing authority may grant a permanent employee up to a year of unpaid leave, extendable past a year only for exceptional circumstances with the written approval of the Chairperson or a designee. Vacation and sick leave for police officers and firefighters are set by local ordinance instead. In State service the subchapter covers career service employees unless a section says otherwise, and temporary employees are entitled to none of it. Two things apply everywhere: leave records go to the Civil Service Commission for the official State record, and a leave of absence does not disqualify an applicant for a promotional examination.
- 4A:6-1.2Vacation leave
Two ladders, and they are not the same. Full-time State career employees get 12 working days of paid vacation from the first full calendar year up to five years of continuous service, 15 after five years, 20 after 12 years, and 25 over 20 years. Full-time local employees are guaranteed a minimum of 12 days up to 10 years, 15 after 10, and 20 after 20, so the local floor reaches 20 days at the point the State ladder moves to 25. Both start the same way: one day for a first month begun between the 1st and the 8th, half a day between the 9th and the 23rd, then a day a month to the end of that calendar year. Leave is credited at the start of the year in anticipation of continued employment. Continuous service is where the miscounting happens. Employment either side of a suspension or a leave without pay is still continuous, but the time spent on it does not count toward the years, with military leave, furlough extension leave, workers compensation injury leave and voluntary furlough excepted. Unused earned vacation is paid out on leaving, and to the estate on death.
- 4A:6-1.3Sick leave
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. The first year runs on months instead, one working day for each month of service, with half a day for a first month begun between the 9th and the 23rd. Part-time and 10-month employees get a proportionate share. Unused sick leave accumulates from year to year without limit. It keeps accruing through a voluntary furlough or a furlough extension leave, and stops accruing during a suspension or a leave of absence without pay. Four uses are listed: personal illness or injury, exposure to a contagious disease, care of a seriously ill member of the immediate family for a reasonable period, and a death in the immediate family for a reasonable period. Immediate family is defined at 4A:1-1.3 rather than by ordinary usage. A fifth use covers absences to obtain or use an aid for a disability that is needed to function on the job.
- 4A:6-1.4Sick leave procedures: State service
Two clocks govern calling in sick in State service, and which one is yours depends on the unit. If your work schedule is not 24-hour or shift coverage, you notify the contact person designated by the agency by your scheduled reporting time. If your unit requires 24-hour or shift coverage, you notify them at least one hour before the scheduled starting time, with exceptions available from that contact person for sudden illness or emergency. Proof of illness can be required in three situations: a reason to believe sick leave is being abused, an absence of five or more consecutive work days, or an aggregate of more than 15 days in a 12-month period. A chronic or recurring illness causing occasional absences of one day or less needs one proof every six months, specifying the nature of the illness. The appointing authority may also require an examination by a physician it designates and pays for. Failing to follow the notification and verification steps can mean denial of leave for that absence, treatment as abuse of sick leave, or cause for disciplinary action, and the section permits all three.
- 4A:6-1.5Vacation, administrative, and sick leave adjustments: State service
You can end up owing the State leave, and this section is the arithmetic for it. Employees in State service are liable for vacation and sick days taken beyond their entitlements. Leaving State service or going on leave without pay part way through the year prorates what was earned: a month on the payroll for 23 days or more earns a full month of allowance, more than 14 but fewer than 23 days earns half. Anything used above the prorated and accumulated figure has to be reimbursed, and an employee returning from leave gets no new vacation or sick credit until it is. Intermittent days off without pay, other than voluntary furlough or furlough extension days, are aggregated and treated as one continuous leave without pay, with every 11 working days cutting vacation and sick credit by half a month of entitlement. Union leave days under a negotiated agreement stay out of that calculation. Accumulated sick leave is not paid out on leaving State service except on retirement. A change of workweek triggers a recalculation, converting banked hours into days and back at the new workday length.
- 4A:6-1.6(Reserved)
Reserved. No rule text is currently published at this citation.
- 4A:6-1.7(Reserved)
Reserved. No rule text is currently published at this citation.
- 4A:6-1.8Pregnancy-disability and child care leave: State service
Pregnancy disability leave in State service is not built as a separate entitlement with rules of its own. A State employee in the career, senior executive or unclassified service who requests leave, with or without pay, for disability due to pregnancy is granted it under the same terms and conditions that apply to sick leave or leave without pay, and the appointing authority may ask for acceptable medical evidence that she is unable to perform her work. Accrued sick, vacation or administrative leave may be used for the purpose, and nobody can be required to exhaust accrued leave before taking a leave without pay. One trade-off is stated plainly: eligibility for New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance requires exhausting all accrued sick leave. Child care leave is a separate matter, granted on the same terms as any other leave without pay under 4A:6-1.10.
- 4A:6-1.9Administrative leave: State service
Emergencies first, then religious holidays, then personal matters. That is the priority order for the three days of administrative leave that full-time State employees in the career and senior executive service are granted each calendar year for personal business. Employees hired part way through the year get half a day for each full calendar month of employment, capped at three days for the remainder of the year. Unclassified employees may be granted up to three days at the discretion of the appointing authority, which is a different thing from an entitlement, and part-time employees get a proportionate share. Use has to be approved and cannot be unreasonably denied. The catch arrives at the end of December: administrative leave not used during the calendar year is forfeited, and an employee who leaves State service is not required to repay days already taken. It can be taken alongside other paid leave.
- 4A:6-1.10Leave without pay: State service
One year is the ceiling, and even that takes two approvals. In State service an appointing authority may grant a permanent employee a leave of absence without pay for up to a year, with approval from the Chairperson or a designee, and anything longer requires an exceptional situation plus written approval. Nonpermanent career service employees run on much shorter terms: exceptional situations only, no more than six biweekly pay periods or the equivalent, nothing continuing past termination of the appointment, and the leave may be ended at any time. Personal illness or disability can extend it by up to six further months. Senior executive and unclassified employees may be granted up to a year at the discretion of the appointing authority. An employee may be allowed back before the leave runs out. Leave for union office is the exception to all of these limits and may run longer where the negotiated agreement provides for it, as 4A:6-1.16 confirms.
- 4A:6-1.11Military leave
Which force you serve in decides how many paid days you get. A member of the organized militia of New Jersey, including the National Guard, is entitled to up to 90 work days of paid leave in a calendar year for Federal active duty, and unlimited paid leave for State active duty. A member of the organized reserves of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard, or of the national guard of another state, is entitled to 30 work days paid. Neither figure covers inactive duty training such as weekend drills. An appointing authority cannot unilaterally reschedule your work time to avoid the conflict, though the two of you may agree to reschedule it. Service in time of war or emergency carries unpaid leave for the period of service plus three months after discharge, extended where you are incapacitated by wound or illness but never beyond two years from discharge, and none of it is granted on a dishonorable discharge. Seniority and salary increments keep accruing throughout.
- 4A:6-1.12Leave for appointment by Governor
The timing is most of the rule. A permanent employee, or an employee in the senior executive service, who is appointed by the Governor to an office gets a leave of absence without pay for the period of that appointment, and the appointing authority must grant and record it. The condition is that the employee requested the leave before the appointment. When the leave expires the employee has the right to return to the former title and to receive all the rights, privileges and benefits of that title as if they had never left it. This is one of the sections that reaches local service as well as State service, through the entitlement list at 4A:6-1.1.
- 4A:6-1.13Convention leave
Paperwork on both ends, and a five-day cap. An employee in the career, senior executive or unclassified service who is a duly authorized representative is granted up to five paid days in a calendar year, travel time included, to attend a State or national convention of an organization listed at N.J.S.A. 38:23-2. Written notice from the organization goes to the appointing authority before the convention, and a certificate of attendance after it. Representatives of the PBA, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Firemen's Mutual Benevolent Association and the Professional Fire Fighters Association fall under their own paragraph, with leave for the duration of the convention plus reasonable travel up to seven days, and headcount limits: 10 percent of the membership of the organization, never fewer than two and never more than 10 representatives unless a negotiated agreement allows more, and a maximum of 25 where the organization has more than 5,000 members. Local school district teaching staff, secretaries and office clerks get up to two days for the NJEA convention.
- 4A:6-1.14Education leave: State service
Discretionary, State service only, and gated twice. An appointing authority may grant an employee in the career, senior executive or unclassified service education leave, with or without pay, but the training has to be of direct value to the State and it has to be unavailable through State inservice training programs. Both conditions, not either one. The grant also needs approval from the Chairperson or a designee, so the appointing authority cannot sign it off alone. Paying for the course is a separate question, handled by the tuition aid rules at 4A:6-4.6.
- 4A:6-1.15Leave for athletic competition: State service
Narrow, and paid. A State employee in the career, senior executive or unclassified service who qualifies as a member of the United States team for athletic competition at world, Pan American or Olympic level is granted a leave of absence with pay to prepare for and take part in it. The sport has to be one contested in either Pan American or Olympic competition. The cap has two halves and the shorter governs: no more than 90 calendar days in one year, or the combined days of the official training camp and the competition, whichever is less. Ninety days is a ceiling, not an allowance.
- 4A:6-1.16Leave for union office
Forty-one words, and the operative one is "may". An appointing authority may grant a leave of absence without pay to an employee elected or appointed as an official of the union of that employee. Nothing here obliges it to. The length is not fixed by the rule either: the maximum period is a subject of negotiation between the employer and the union, so the contract carries what the regulation leaves blank. In State service such leave may run past the ordinary limits on leave without pay where the negotiated agreement provides for it (4A:6-1.10), and a local appointing authority may grant it under 4A:6-1.1.
- 4A:6-1.17Leave for elective office: local service
Six years is the outer limit, and it runs from the day the leave begins rather than from anything about the office. A permanent employee in local service must be granted a leave of absence without pay to fill an elective public office for the term of that office. The right to return to the permanent title lasts six years from the start of the leave, and it depends on a written request to return being submitted to the appointing authority before the leave expires. Where the elected term runs past six years, the name of the employee goes on a special reemployment list at the six-year mark instead. Seniority in the permanent title accrues for those six years and no further. Someone who sat a promotional examination before the leave began may still be appointed from the resulting list, and begins the working test period on returning. Whoever fills the job in the meantime is appointed from an appropriate eligible list but holds it on an interim basis, ending when the employee returns.
- 4A:6-1.18Leave for emergency civilian duty: State service
Two unrelated things share this section, both of them State service. The first is American Red Cross disaster work. A certified disaster service volunteer in the career, senior executive or unclassified service may be given up to 10 paid days a year plus up to 10 unpaid days, at the request of the American Red Cross and with the approval of the appointing authority, but only where the disaster meets one of three tests: the relief services are performed in New Jersey, or the disaster is a Federal or presidentially declared one designated Level III or above, or it is declared by the governor of a state or territory. The second is emergency civilian duty relating to national defense or another emergency, ordered by the Governor or by the President. Career and senior executive service employees are given that time off with pay. Unclassified employees may be granted it with or without pay, at the discretion of the appointing authority.
- 4A:6-1.19Leave for jury duty: State service
Commuting time counts. State employees in the career or senior executive service are granted paid leave for the time jury duty takes during work hours, and the section says in terms that the actual time spent commuting is part of it. Shift workers have their own paragraph. Where jury duty falls in the shift immediately before or after the scheduled one, wholly within the same day, the scheduled shift is excused. Where a shift runs from one day into the next and does not sit immediately next to the jury service, the employee chooses whether the excused shift is the one before or the one after. The daily limit is the normal number of work hours, or up to eight hours for anyone not on a fixed workweek schedule. Written verification of attendance signed by a court representative goes to the appointing authority. Unclassified State employees may be granted the leave with or without pay, at the discretion of the appointing authority.
- 4A:6-1.20Leave to appear as a witness: State service
Whether the appearance is paid turns on two questions: is it part of the job, and are you a party. State employees in the career or senior executive service get time off with pay to appear as a witness or a party before a judicial or administrative body or a legislative committee when the appearance is part of the job function, and where it falls on a normal day off it is compensated under the overtime rules at 4A:3-5.1. When the appearance is not part of the job function the answer splits. Time off is with pay where the employee is summoned as a witness in a proceeding they are not a named party to, and without pay where they are a party. One case is carved out of that split: attending your own workers compensation proceeding is time off with pay. Unclassified State employees may be granted the leave with or without pay, at the discretion of the appointing authority.
- 4A:6-1.21Family leave
Nothing in this section gives anybody a day off. It is the sign in front of the two family leave programs that follow, State family leave at 4A:6-1.21A and Federal family and medical leave at 4A:6-1.21B, and what it actually does is allocate responsibility. The appointing authority, not the employee, has to determine whether one program applies, both apply, or neither does, then record the leaves appropriately and implement the applicable laws. Ten worked examples follow, and they are there because the two programs run alongside each other on different terms. A single absence can be recorded under both at once and count against both. Leave for an employee own serious health condition counts against the Federal entitlement but not the State one, because State law does not provide leave for that reason. And a State entitlement used up in one year can leave a Federal entitlement intact in the next.
- 4A:6-1.21AState family leave
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 clock is where this parts company with the Federal scheme at 4A:6-1.21B: 24 months here rather than a 12-month year, and the two programs run alongside each other rather than as one pot. Eligibility takes 12 months of employment with the employer and not less than 1,000 base hours in the preceding 12 months, and it reaches the career, senior executive and unclassified services. Three covered reasons: the birth of a child of the employee, the placement of a child with the employee for adoption, and the serious health condition of a family member, meaning a child, parent or spouse. A serious health condition of the employee is not a reason for leave under this section. Denial is possible but narrow, and reaches only someone among the highest paid five percent or the seven highest paid employees, only where denial is necessary to prevent substantial and grievous economic injury, and only with notice at the time that determination is made.
- 4A:6-1.21BFederal family and medical leave
The Civil Service Commission does not enforce this one. The section is informational, written to flag where the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act differs from State family leave at 4A:6-1.21A, and complaints about it go to the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Federal entitlement is 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period, and in State service that 12 months begins on the first day of FMLA leave rather than on a fixed calendar date. Eligibility takes 12 months with the employer and a minimum of 1,250 hours, a different threshold from the State Act. Public agencies, including the State and political subdivisions, are covered employers regardless of how many people they employ. Three grounds: the birth or placement of a child, care for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition, and the serious health condition of the employee, which has no counterpart in the State Act. Parent here excludes parents in law. Where an employee qualifies under both laws the leave counts against both.
- 4A:6-1.22Donated leave program
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 reasons are a catastrophic health condition or injury affecting the employee, the same affecting an immediate family member the employee is needed to care for, or absence to donate an organ. Catastrophic means life-threatening, or a period of disability a physician verifies as requiring 60 or more work days of absence or care. The numbers: at least five days received before anyone can take part, no more than 30 days from any one donor, 260 days maximum for a recipient, nothing retroactive, and a donor must keep 20 accrued sick days or 12 accrued vacation days in hand. A donation cannot be revoked. Local appointing authorities may run their own programs on these terms with the approval of the Chairperson.
- 4A:6-1.23Voluntary furlough program
The stated purpose is to lessen the need for reductions in force. A voluntary furlough lets an employee in the career, senior executive or unclassified service take up to 30 days off without pay in a calendar year while accrual of leave time, anniversary dates and seniority are treated as if the employee were in pay status, which is what separates it from an ordinary leave without pay. It has to be requested in writing and approved before it is taken, and it can be structured as shorter work days, intermittent days off or consecutive days off. An appointing authority may refuse it where participation would be detrimental to public health, safety or welfare, or would cost it money through overtime, extra appointments or lost revenue. Three uses are barred outright: as sick leave, as leave without pay due to disability, and to seek or take other work. Beyond the 30 days an employee may request up to 60 days of furlough extension leave, taken in blocks of 10 work days, for education or family care needs only.
- 4A:6-1.24School volunteer leave
The volunteering is paid; getting there is not. State employees in the career, senior executive or unclassified service are granted up to 20 hours of paid leave a calendar year to volunteer in an academically beneficial school activity, and paid leave under the section is expressly not granted for time spent travelling to and from the school, though vacation leave, administrative leave and leave without pay may be used for that. What qualifies is given by example: helping a teacher in the classroom, reading to children, tutoring, homework help, mentoring, guest speaking, advising on careers, or assisting with extracurricular or coaching activities. What does not qualify is listed too: parent teacher conferences, back-to-school nights, field trips and class performances. The school may be any New Jersey public, private or parochial school through grade 12, and the employee need not be a parent of a child there. In local service the program is optional, and the appointing authority decides whether to establish one.