2011 was a big year for public employment reform. Several amendments were made to state law impacting public employers. First, 2011′s biggest news was the amendments to Chapter 78, which requires all public employees to pay at least 1.5% of their base salary towards health insurance costs. Although certain union employees will be grandfathered until their current collective bargaining agreement expires, the law will affect all public employees in a significant way.

 In other big developments, regulations for Police and Fire Interest Arbitration, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-14a, et seq., now caps all salary items to a 2% increase at interest arbitration. Also, there may be no additions of non-salary economic items going forward. Other reforms include a fast-track arbitration process with concrete deadlines, and caps on arbitrator pay.

 The governor is still campaigning for reform of payouts of accrued, unused sick leave. However, no progress was made before the end of the year. Senate republicans have created a “Sick Leave Reform Calculator” which shows the current total sick leave liability for each town and calculates the cost to the average homeowner if the amount were paid out now. The calculator can be found at: http://www.senatenj.com

 Recent New Jersey Appellate Division Cases impacting public employers include:

• Petersen v. Township of Raritan, Docket No. A-3290-09T3, February 9, 2011 – Concluded that health benefits could be changed because the collective bargaining agreement provided only that retirees would be offered the same benefits offered to all municipal employees.
• Morris County Sheriff’s Office v. Morris County Policemen’s Benevolent Ass’n, Local 298, Docket No. No. A-3174-09T3, January 13, 2011 – Found that the county had the managerial prerogative to unilaterally eliminate the practice of allowing employees to come to work on holidays and be paid despite there being no need for them to be there and no work for them to do.
• PBA, Local No. 11 v. City of Trenton, Docket No. A-116-09, March 29, 2011 – Reaffirmed the principle that an interest arbitrator’s award will not be overturned by the courts unless it is not “reasonably debatable”, and upheld the arbitrator’s award of compensation to detectives for “muster time” before their scheduled shifts.
• In the Matter of Suzanne Hess, Docket No. A-2408-09T1, August 30, 2011 – Overturned the Retirement System’s decision to deny an employee retirement benefits because although her termination was for criminal charges related to a car accident, the car accident was not on the job or job related.

                Happy 2012!