N.J.A.C. 4A:6-6 Awards Program
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:6-6, Awards Program: 10 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 4A:6-6.1General provisions
Local appointing authorities may establish and administer awards programs, and the rule says nothing further about them. State service gets a structure instead: awards for commendation, awards for suggestions, service recognition, anything else the New Jersey Employee Awards Committee establishes, and departmental programs the Committee has approved. Coverage is wider than the career service and wider than the Executive Branch. It reaches all executive branch employees whether career, senior executive or unclassified, including autonomous agencies inside executive departments, applicable employees in the Judiciary, and every employee of the Office of Legislative Services.
- 4A:6-6.2New Jersey Employee Awards Committee: State service
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. That is the New Jersey Employee Awards Committee, sitting in the Civil Service Commission under the Chairperson's supervision and meeting at least monthly unless there is no business. Its Executive Secretary reports monthly to the Chairperson on activity levels, processing time and program benefits, gives the same data to each agency's chief executive, and reports annually to the Governor. Beneath it, every participating agency runs a departmental committee of at least three members appointed by the agency head for one-year terms starting each May 18, chaired by somebody with direct access to that agency head. Those committees investigate and evaluate every suggestion and nomination sent to them and arrange the award ceremonies.
- 4A:6-6.3Records: State service
Two sets of books. The Committee keeps official copies of the minutes of all meetings and all other official actions, which are public information, plus copies of every suggestion it receives with supporting documents and the departmental committee recommendations. Departmental committees keep their own minutes on the same public basis, copies of each suggestion referred to them with documentation and their recommendation, and records of all transactions and supporting documentation for the Option 2 suggestions described at N.J.A.C. 4A:6-6.6. Retention after the Committee's final action is not fixed here: it follows each department's own record retention schedule.
- 4A:6-6.4Commendation awards: State service
Four categories are named and the list is expressly open. Heroism awards go to acts of bravery or personal sacrifice of a life threatening nature above and beyond the duties of the position. Exceptional Service covers outstanding acts of public service beyond those duties, including appropriate responses to a crisis or emergency. Professional Achievement recognises meritorious or distinguished accomplishment that need not fall entirely within normal duties, such as establishing new methods or designs, winning honours from professional societies, or providing key assistance to an award recipient. Community Service covers outstanding contributions to the employee's own community or to the State through activity outside the workplace. For the first two categories it makes no difference whether the act happened during working hours. Anyone may nominate an employee or a group, though heroism nominations must be submitted within one year of the act, and the departmental committee investigates and votes before the Committee decides.
- 4A:6-6.5Suggestion Award Program standards: State service
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. Three requirements apply to every one: it must be original or a new application of an old idea, a State agency must have implemented it or ordered it implemented, and there must be a causal relationship between the suggestion and the improvement. The list of what cannot win is longer than the test and does most of the work. Twelve exclusions include anything forming part of your own duties that you have authority to change, proposals from employees whose primary duty is research and planning unless unrelated to their assignment, anything reaching the Committee more than six months after it was already in use, routine maintenance, ideas needing legislative or regulatory change, and simply raising fees or taxes.
- 4A:6-6.6Suggestion Award Program procedures: State service
Five hundred dollars is the line that decides who approves an award. The Secretary makes the initial review of every proposed award recommendation from a departmental committee, may uphold a recommended disapproval on the evidence presented, and may authorise the award personally where the recommended amount is $500.00 or less. Anything above that goes to the full Committee, which accepts, rejects or modifies. Suggesters pick between two filing routes on the prescribed form. Option 1 goes to the Committee, which refers it to the departmental committee, which then has 90 days to evaluate and recommend. Option 2 records the suggestion as the suggester's property first, after which the suggester works directly with supervisory personnel and the departmental committee to develop and refine it. The Secretary notifies the suggester of the disposition within 60 days of receiving the recommendation, and approved awards are paid from the agency's operating budget within 60 days of notification.
- 4A:6-6.7Suggestion Award Program types and amounts of awards: State service
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. Where a suggestion was adopted mainly because it saves money, the award is 10 percent of the net annual savings in the first year of operation, paid after that first year and still capped at $10,000, although the Committee may waive the one-year wait where savings are verified earlier and may use a typical year or an average of several. Where the benefit is safety, health, welfare or morale, or savings cannot be quantified, the departmental committee documents a recommended amount against five factors including the seriousness and extent of the problem and the ingenuity of the solution. Accepting an award means agreeing that further use of the suggestion supports no additional claim. Leaving State service does not forfeit an award, and the estate is paid on death.
- 4A:6-6.8Service Recognition Program: State service
Recognition arrives at every five years of employment, for all State employees, whatever their type of appointment. Service counts across the career, senior executive and unclassified service and across regular, provisional, temporary and part-time capacities, with part-time service prorated, and years are computed the same way they are for annual vacation leave under N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.2. A separate retirement award goes to anyone retiring from a State-administered pension system whatever their length of service, once only. Each agency works out who is eligible and reviews personnel records before the close of the fiscal year, with any dispute about eligible service referred to the Committee. The award itself may be a letter of commendation, certificate, citation, plaque, medal, gift item or whatever else the Committee determines, and ceremonies are the department's job, held at least yearly.
- 4A:6-6.9Departmental awards programs: State service
Departments and agencies are encouraged rather than required to recognise their own employees, and the rule names attendance, safety, productivity, customer service, and employee of the year or month schemes without closing the list. The New Jersey Employee Awards Committee still holds the gate. A proposal goes to it describing in detail the categories of awards, the eligibility standards, the procedures, and the types and amounts of awards to be given, and the Committee may approve, disapprove or modify what it receives. Approval is generally for a specific duration, after which the department or agency has to come back for approval to continue.
- 4A:6-6.10Appeals: State service
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. Appeals under the awards subchapter, including a departmental committee's denial of a suggestion award, are filed in writing with the Secretary, signed, stating the reason for the appeal and the specific relief requested. Failing to supply requested information can get the appeal dismissed. Review happens on the written record unless a hearing is required by law or the Committee finds a material and controlling dispute of fact. A party may be represented by an attorney, an authorised union representative or an authorised appointing authority representative. Burden of proof normally sits with the appellant, with one reversal: where an agency recommends disapproval for absence of a causal relationship between suggestion and implementation, the agency carries it. The Committee's decision is final and goes no further.