In my last post I wrote about the Appellate Division case of In the Matter of Ambroise, which demonstrated that employees will get a fair hearing before the New Jersey Civil Service Commission and in appeals to state appellate Courts. Another recent Appellate Division opinion in the case of In…
A recent appellate opinion in the case of In the Matter of Ambroise demonstrates that New Jersey civil service employees will receive a fair hearing in appeals with the New Jersey’s Civil Service Commission and appeals courts. Background Ambroise was terminated as a senior correctional police officer (SCPO) by…
New Jersey employment law in the public sector contains few more contentious areas than the confidentiality of the disciplinary and personnel records of law enforcement officers. A trio of published New Jersey State and Federal court opinions have shed light on this contentious and evolving area of the law. …
What is a Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action? A Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action, also known as a PNDA or a Form 31-A, is a New Jersey Civil Service form which notifies an employee that her employer seeks to impose discipline, including an immediate suspension in some cases. What…
Progressive discipline is a concept used in New Jersey civil service discipline law and teacher tenure charges. It can serve to increase or decrease the severity of a penalty based on the employee’s prior disciplinary record. Recently, an appellate opinion examined the concept of progressive discipline in the context of…
New Jersey employment law affords civil service employees with many due process protections when their employer seeks to impose discipline. The Appellate Division’s recent decision in a civil service discipline appeal in the case of In the Matter of Figueroa, Camden County, Department of Parks examines one of the fundamental…
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination New Jersey employment law has long been at the forefront of prohibiting discrimination. Indeed, the Legislature adopted New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination in 1945, long before the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 first banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, and even…
In many areas of New Jersey employment law, the scope of an arbitrator’s powers is a significant question. This is particularly true in the adjudication of tenure charges against New Jersey teachers and principals. The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court squarely addressed this issue in the recently published…
New Jersey employment law provides many protections to employees. One of the strongest of these is the tenure rights afforded to public school teachers. Even with such strong protections, for many reasons employees sometimes decide to forgo these rights. The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey recently…
A recent New Jersey employment law decision examined the procedures for reopening a Civil Service disciplinary appeal because of newly discovered evidence. The Newsom Case In the case of In the Matter of Kevin Newsom, New Jersey State Prison, Kevin Newsom, a civil service employee, was terminated as a corrections…