whether a police officer on light duty can carry a firearm, use an employer-owned vehicle and / or wear the departmental uniform. Thus, the PBA may not challenge the portion of a policy that gives the employer the discretion to suspend an officer’ s ability to carry a firearm, wear the uniform and / or operate an employer vehicle while on light duty.
These issues do raise safety concerns. If an officer on light duty has his weapon removed but is required to wear the departmental uniform and / or is accessible to the public, his assignment may place him in harm’ s way. The PBA should negotiate with the employer that if an officer is not allowed to carry a weapon that, for safety reasons, he should not be in uniform and shall not be accessible to the public. If the employer refuses, the PBA can file a grievance alleging that the officer’ s safety is being jeopardized.
Can a light duty assignment include work not traditionally performed by a law enforcement officer?
Some polices allow the employer to assign law enforcement officers to perform non-law-enforcement – related work. PERC has held that the parties may agree to limit light duty assignments to work traditionally performed by law enforcement officers. For example, requiring an officer on light duty to file police reports, catalogue evidence, etc., is law-enforcement related. However, sweeping the floor in headquarters is not. If an officer is unilaterally assigned to do the latter, or other non-law enforcement related tasks, the PBA can grieve the assignment. Can my shift be changed if I am assigned to light duty? PERC has held that an employer can change an officer’ s selected shift when on light duty if the officer is deemed not physically qualified to perform a light duty assignment on his shift. However, if the officer is physically fit to remain on his shift, the issue of changing an officer’ s shift is mandatorily negotiable. As such, if an officer selected his shift by bid and it is changed for light duty despite his fitness to remain on his shift, the PBA can file a grievance. Do not, however, forget to check to see if your contract allows the employer to unilaterally change shifts.
Whose doctor gets to determine if I am eligible for light duty?
According to PERC case law, an employer has the right to select its own physician to determine whether an employee is fit for duty. To the extent, however, that a light duty policy would preclude consideration of the medical opinion of the injured or ill officer’ s physician, or some other independent doctor, that issue is negotiable. Thus, should the employer’ s doctor determine that an officer is fit for light duty and the officer’ s doctor concludes otherwise, the parties can resolve the dispute through a grievance. If the officer is ordered to light duty, however, the officer should request that he be allowed to use his available accrued time until the issue is resolved. As part of the grievance remedy, the PBA should ask for reinstatement of the officer’ s time used if it prevails, as in the PBA 337 matter discussed above.
The key to analyzing a light duty policy is to determine what is and is not negotiable and what parts of the policy, if any, conflict with your contract. Once these issues are addressed, you can determine whether an issue is within the scope of negotiations and therefore can be grieved. d
James M. Mets, Esq., is a partner and Brian Manetta, Esq., is a senior associate with Mets Mets Schiro & McGovern, LLP, which serves as labor counsel to numerous PBA Locals throughout the state. www. njcopsmagazine. com ■ MAY 2018 23