municipality's governing body to the Director.
unless approved by the Director.
Once the Director is given this power, he or she would then
have the authority, if it was determined that it was reasonable and
directly related to the municipality's financial recovery, to unilaterally modify or terminate any collective negotiations agreement
to which the municipality was a party, except those related to
school districts. The Director could also unilaterally change terms
and conditions of employment when there is an agreement in
effect or if an agreement has expired. Further, the Director can act
as the sole agent of the municipality in any collective
negotiations. Stated differently, once these provisions are triggered, there is no protection for any collective bargaining agreement or even for any collective bargaining.
Lastly, the Act authorizes the municipality to offer early retirement incentives to full-time employees, if the Director
determines that the incentives will result in savings for the municipality while still continuing to provide the affected governmental
services, and if the Director approves the plan. For PFRS, the
member must have at least 20 years of pensionable service at the
time of retirement to qualify for any offered additional service
credit. The incentive may provide service credit of no more than
30 years on the date of retirement, but no more than 60 months
of additional service credit. The incentive program may also
include a minimum number of years of service with the municipality or a minimum age in order to participate.
The Act also allows the Director to unilaterally abolish any nonelected positions or remove any employees, excluding appointed
officials who have obtained tenure. Although worded awkwardly,
the Act removes Civil Service protection for employees from decisions by the Director to appoint, transfer or remove employees.
As you can see, the law gives the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs and the Director of the Division of
Local Government Services extensive and far-reaching authority
if Atlantic City does not submit a five-year recovery plan that is
approved, or if it does not comply with the plan. And even though
the new law may be limited to Atlantic City now, there is always
the possibility that the law could be amended, or new laws enacted, to apply to other municipalities as well. Hopefully, Atlantic
City will be able to present a plan which is approved and the
unions in Atlantic City, including the PBA, will not have to worry
about whether the Commissioner will modify or terminate existing collective bargaining agreements. We’ll know more by
November, and will keep you updated. d
The new law also allows the municipality to avoid PERC’s
authority to act in areas such as unfair practices and interest arbitration. The Act amends the New Jersey Employer-Employee
Relations Act to strip PERC of jurisdiction over the municipality
in need of stabilization and recovery, effectively giving the municipality immunity from unfair labor practice charges.
The Act also amends the PERC Act to provide that the Director
may determine that the municipality will not participate in
impasse arbitration and may withdraw from any pending arbitration. Also, any pending interest arbitration petition will be vacated. The Act also provides that all arbitration awards, including but
not limited to interest arbitration awards, are subject to the
approval of the Director. An arbitration award will not be binding
Kaitlyn E. Dunphy, Esq., an associate in the firm of Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman assisted in the preparation
of this article.
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■
JUNE 2016
13