N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7 Telework Program: State Service
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7, Telework Program: State Service: 8 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 4A:6-7.1Definitions
Four definitions, and they operate only inside the telework subchapter. An alternative worksite is a location in the employee's home that the employee designates for performing official duties, or another location the appointing authority approves. The official reporting location is where the employee reports when not working at an alternative worksite or in the field. Telework is the performance of official duties at an alternative worksite. The fourth needs care. For purposes of this subchapter, reasonable accommodation means a modification to an employee's work environment made pursuant to existing State and Federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and requests must be approved through established ADA and human resources channels by the appointing authority. That is narrower than the ordinary sense of the phrase, and it carries no meaning outside this subchapter.
- 4A:6-7.2General provisions
State service only. The telework subchapter runs on Title 11A authority and covers employees in the career, unclassified and senior executive services. State boards and authorities not subject to Title 11A may choose to follow it, and State colleges and universities are outside it, though they may consult it when building their own programs. Local service is not addressed at all. Each appointing authority must institute a telework program taking operational needs into account, and must let employees meeting the eligibility criteria telework, with operational needs left to its own discretion. A written plan required approval from the Chairperson by January 2, 2026, or within 90 days of a new appointing authority's creation, and no program may run before its plan is approved. Unions see the proposed plan at least 20 calendar days before submission and their comments travel with it. One hard ceiling: no more than two telework days in a calendar week.
- 4A:6-7.3Telework program eligibility
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. The rest ask whether the work travels. Duties and expectations achievable remotely, equipment and reference materials available, sensitive information and IT systems securely accessible, training and supervision workable remotely, customer contact not prohibitive, operational needs permitting, and consistency with the New Jersey First Act. Internet access stays the employee's responsibility. Determinations are individualised, except where an appointing authority concludes an entire job title cannot work remotely. Where a supervisor and employee disagree, the employee may request a consultation with union representation, and senior leadership decides in writing. Mandatory telework training comes first, and new or transferred employees wait out the working test period.
- 4A:6-7.4Performance expectations, revocations of telework eligibility, and adjustments of telework schedule
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. Within the first 45 days of an authorisation, the supervisor and employee must meet in person at the regular workplace, separately from any scheduled evaluation, to discuss performance and any modification of expectations. Telework may be revoked at any time for not meeting performance expectations, not complying with the telework agreement, or scheduling telework in place of using accrued time for personal matters, but the sequence is prescribed: the supervisor first notifies the employee of the deficiencies and issues a development or corrective action plan with a timeframe, union representation is notified where pertinent, and human resources must approve any revocation afterwards. An employee who demonstrates they met expectations in time keeps telework. Operational needs support a separate route to revocation or schedule adjustment.
- 4A:6-7.5Emergent circumstances
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. The appointing authority gives as much notice as possible, and the employee and management will make every effort to reschedule the telework day elsewhere in the same week. It runs the other way too. Where something emergent at the alternative worksite stops the employee working, they must notify the appointing authority immediately, which may direct them in or approve paid leave or leave without pay. Additional telework days beyond the weekly limit need approval by the Governor's Office and only in emergent circumstances, such as a public health emergency or a closure for health and safety reasons.
- 4A:6-7.6Data privacy
Records created at home are public records. Anything created and stored in the course of State government business at an alternative worksite, electronic or paper, on a State-issued device or a personal one, falls under the State's records retention and disposition law and the Open Public Records Act. The rest of the section allocates responsibility. Appointing authorities consult their information technology office when writing the policy and keep an inventory of State-owned equipment at each teleworker's worksite, and personal devices may be used for State business only with the appointing authority's permission or at its direction. Portable assets such as laptops remain the property of the issuing appointing authority, with the employee holding temporary custodianship and answering for their physical security. In-person work meetings may not be held at the alternative worksite at all; they go to an approved place such as an agency office. Employees keep the worksite safe and ergonomically suitable.
- 4A:6-7.7Telework and alternative workweek programs
Any State appointing authority without an existing alternative workweek program has to create one. Employees eligible for both AWP and telework must be allowed to use both where that fits operational needs, but the appointing authority alone decides whether simultaneous participation is possible, and that decision is expressly not appealable. Where both apply, the employee works no more than one telework day in a week containing an AWP day, except in the emergent circumstances at N.J.A.C. 4A:6-7.5. Employees whose duties make telework impossible are not left with nothing: the appointing authority must permit participation in an alternative workweek or flexitime program where they are eligible and operations allow, under N.J.A.C. 4A:6-2.6 and 2.7. Those plans still go to the Chairperson for approval, and an agency without an approved plan submits one alongside its telework plan.
- 4A:6-7.8Challenges to telework eligibility denial, revocation, or adjustment
Three routes, and no fourth. Where telework was sought or held as a reasonable accommodation, a denial, revocation or adjustment is challenged by a complaint to the appointing authority's Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Officer under N.J.A.C. 4A:7-3.2. Where the action is claimed to be an act of reprisal, the appeal procedures established for reprisal claims apply, at N.J.A.C. 4A:2-5.2. Everything else runs through the grievance procedures at N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.3 through 3.7. The standard on that third route is the part worth knowing. Where an appeal over a denial, revocation or adjustment based on operational needs reaches the Civil Service Commission, the Commission must uphold the appointing authority's determination unless it finds that determination to be an abuse of discretion, and the other requirements of N.J.A.C. 4A:2-3.7 still have to be met.