A recent Appellate Division case made some important decisions regarding the discretion of localities to make needed changes based on their budgetary constraints.  In Morris County Sherriff’s Office v. Morris County Policemen’s Benevolent Association, Local 298, 418 N.J. Super. 64 (App. Div. 2011), the court found that Morris County could make certain unilaterally changes in setting employee staffing and schedules to further the County’s goal of efficient allocation of resources.

Morris County adopted a “Strategy for Controlling Overtime and Operational Expenses” to decrease overtime expenditures without negotiating with the union.  For over a decade, the policy had been that all employees at the Morris County Correctional Facility who worked on holidays were to be paid double time.  This was true even if the employee was not actually needed to be at work and even if there was actually no work for the employee to do that day.  Morris County took action to eliminate that policy.  Employees continued to be paid for the holiday, but were no longer permitted to come to work to earn double time if their positions were not needed.  After considering what the court called “previously-tolerated featherbedding,” the court reversed the Public Employment Relations Commission decision that found negotiations were required. 

 The Appellate Division found that this was not negotiable because any negotiations regarding this strategy would interfere with the determination of government policy – specifically, the “essential duty of government to spend public funds” wisely and furthering efficient allocation of resources.  Additionally, the court stated that “municipal decisions about how to organize and deploy police forces to comply with economic needs are unquestionably policy decisions and affect the public welfare,” and further, a “police scheduling plan was non-negotiable as matter of governmental policy where employer asserted plan provided the most efficient utilization of its existing manpower, permitting maintenance of satisfactory around-the-clock police protection at an efficient cost level.”