Employees of the Borough are employed not by
contract, but at will. Either the employee or the employer is free
to terminate employment upon just cause and upon two weeks' notice.
The Borough of Newfield is committed to the
principles of equal employment opportunities. An individual's hiring,
promotion, pay, benefits or any other aspect of employment shall not
be affected by that individual's age, sex, national origin, race,
color, creed or handicaps.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following
employment classifications shall be defined as follows:
FULL-TIME EMPLOYEE
Any employee who fills an established organizational position who is scheduled to work at least 30 hours per week. Full-time employees are eligible for all benefits as described in §
43-11.
HOURLY EMPLOYEE
An employee whose wages are based upon an hourly rate and
is paid semimonthly on the basis of actual hours worked.
PART-TIME EMPLOYEE
Any employee who is scheduled to work less than 20 hours
per week. Part-time employees are not eligible for any benefits, except
those mandated by law.
SALARIED EMPLOYEE
An employee whose wages are based upon an annual rate. Pay
will be issued on a semimonthly basis.
TEMPORARY EMPLOYEE
Any employee who is hired for a period of specified duration,
regardless of the number of hours worked per week. Temporary employees
are not eligible for any benefits, except those mandated by law.
A written job description shall be prepared
by the Personnel Director for all Borough-established job functions.
Job descriptions will be provided to each employee. A list of existing
job descriptions is provided as Appendix A.
Any new employee shall serve a six-month probationary
period. After 30 days, the employee will be evaluated by the department
head, and a written report will be presented to Council for approval
and permanent appointment.
Any full-time employee of the Borough may engage
in outside employment in such a manner that it does not interfere
with the employment by the Borough. Permission for such employment
must be obtained from the department head.
All employees of the Borough shall be compensated
in accordance with the following guidelines:
A. Pay periods. Employees will be paid on the 15th and
30th of each month for the previous payroll period's wages. The payroll
period begins at the first of each month at 12:01 a.m. and ends the
15th at 12:00 midnight.
B. Payroll withholding.
(1) All amounts of money withheld from each individual's
pay will be itemized on their pay stubs. As required by law, withholdings
will be made for federal and state income taxes, social security/medicare
and state unemployment disability insurance. Additional employees
may elect to have additional amounts withheld for certain optional
programs as may be offered from time to time.
(2) In order to facilitate proper withholding of federal
and state income taxes, all employees are required to complete a W-4
form.
C. Overtime.
(1) On occasion it may be necessary for employees to work
overtime in order to meet certain deadlines or operational goals.
When such situations arise, and with the approval of the Director,
employees are expected to work a reasonable amount of overtime. In
return, hourly employees will be paid an overtime premium.
(2) Overtime premium pay will be paid at the rate of 1 1/2
times the employee's hourly rate for all hours worked in excess of
40 hours per week. Hourly employees should be discouraged from taking
work home with them and will be compensated for doing so only in rare
instances, with the prior approval of the Director. Salaried employees
are not eligible for overtime premium pay.
D. Rate of pay adjustments.
(1) All employees of the Borough of Newfield will be considered
for a rate of pay adjustment at least annually, usually in conjunction
with a performance review. The Personnel Director will make recommendations
for appropriate pay adjustments for the staff and submit them to the
Council for review. Final approval will come from Council.
(2) In cases of employees being considered for promotion,
the Director should submit a recommendation to the Council, which
will review and either approve, modify or deny the request.
In order to recruit and retain qualified, professional
employees, the Borough offers full-time employees a package of health
and welfare benefits as outlined in this section.
A. Holidays.
(1) Full-time employees will be eligible to observe the
following as paid holidays:
(b)
Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
(k)
Thanksgiving Day and day after.
(2) This is in accordance with the county government offices,
which schedule we are obligated to follow.
(3) As a general rule, a holiday will be observed on the
day on which it occurs unless the day is on a weekend. Holidays falling
on Saturday will be observed on Friday and holidays falling on Sunday
will be observed on Monday. The Director may authorize any appropriate
deviation from this practice in order to stay consistent with local
or industry practice.
B. Vacations.
(1) Full-time employees shall be eligible to take paid
vacation time in accordance with the following schedule:
|
Number of Weeks
|
When Eligible
|
---|
|
1
|
After each of the employee's 1st through 2nd
anniversary date
|
|
2
|
After each of the employee's 2nd through 5th
anniversary date
|
|
3
|
After the employee's 5th through 15th anniversary
date
|
|
4
|
After employee's 15th through 20th anniversary
date
|
|
5
|
Upon completion of employee's 20th anniversary
date
|
(2) An employee's anniversary date occurs annually based
on that employee's date of hire.
(3) Vacation time is expected to be used in the year in
which the employee becomes eligible for it. However, with the written
approval of the Personnel Director, employees may carry over a maximum
of one week of unused vacation time. All other unused vacation time
will be forfeited. Receiving pay in lieu of taking time off is highly
discouraged and requires the approval of the Personnel Director.
(4) Vacation time is expected to be scheduled and approved
in advance. Approval shall be based on the operational continuity
of the Borough, and the determination of the Personnel Director shall
be final.
C. Leave of absence. Under certain conditions, regular
employees may be granted unpaid leaves of absence in accordance with
the following guidelines:
(1) Medical leave. A leave not to exceed six months consecutively or intermittently within a twenty-month period may be granted to an employee for personal or work-connected illness, injury or ailment. During this leave, the Borough will make no payments directly to the employee, but the insurance benefits will be continued. If the employee is unable to return within the period of authorized leave, the employee will be terminated from employment in accordance with §
43-2 of this chapter. Insurance benefits will be discontinued at the end of the month in which the leave expired.
(2) Maternity leave. Maternity leave, not to exceed six months, may be granted to a pregnant employee to enable her to give birth to the child. The Borough will make no payment directly to the employee during this leave, but insurance benefits will be continued. If the employee is unable to return to work within the six-month period, the employee's regular status will be terminated and insurance benefits discontinued, as in the case of medical leave, §
43-11C(1) in this chapter.
(3) Personal leave. Personal leave, not to exceed six
months, for personal or family emergencies may be permitted, provided
that such leaves are jointly authorized and approved by the Personnel
Director and Council. The Borough will make no payment directly to
the employee during this leave, but insurance benefits will be continued.
If the employee fails to return to work within the approved period
of time, his or her employment status will be terminated without notice.
(4) Military leave. Military leave shall be granted to any employee called to active duty in either the National Guard or Reserve Duty. His or her job, or its equivalent, will be made available to him or her within 30 days of release from active duty. Employees not returning to work within that time period will be terminated from employment in accordance with §
43-2. The Borough will make no payment directly to the employee, but insurance benefits will be maintained during the period of leave.
D. Pay for time not worked. In order to provide continuity
of income, the Borough will compensate its employees, in certain cases,
for time not worked.
(1) Sick pay. Borough employees will be compensated for
time lost due to illness, injury or disability as follows:
(a)
Full-time salaried employees will be compensated
at their established rate of pay until they qualify for temporary
disability insurance (TDI), at which time their compensation will
be reduced by the amount of TDI benefits. This benefit covers employees
for a maximum of 26 weeks in any eighteen-month period of time.
(b)
Full-time hourly employees shall be eligible
for five days (40 hours) per year of sick pay. Unused sick time may
carry over from year to year, up to a maximum of 30 days. Any time
lost due to injury, illness or disability beyond the allocated amount
of sick pay shall be uncompensated.
(c)
Part-time and temporary employees are not eligible
to receive sick pay.
(2) Jury duty.
(a)
Full-time employees who are serving jury duty
will receive pay at their regular straight time rate up to eight hours
for time lost while serving on such jury duty.
(b)
Part-time and temporary employees are not eligible
to receive such pay.
(3) Death in family.
(a)
The Borough shall pay the full-time employee's
straight time rate of pay up to eight hours for absence during regularly
scheduled workdays due to death in the immediate family as follows:
[1]
Up to three days of pay for absence due to the
death of the employee's mother, father, husband, wife, child, brother,
sister, father-in-law, mother-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, stepparent
or stepchild.
[2]
One day of pay for absence on the day of the
funeral of aunt, uncle, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, son-in-law
or daughter-in-law of the employee.
(b)
Part-time and temporary employees are not eligible
for funeral pay.
(4) Time lost due to treatment of work related injuries.
(a)
Initial time lost due to treatment of work-related
injuries at the doctor's office or the hospital will be continued
to be paid up to a maximum of eight hours for time lost on the day
of such accident.
(b)
Part-time and temporary employees are covered
by this policy.
E. Health insurance. All full-time employees will be
eligible to receive health/medical insurance through the group policy
carried by the Borough. This coverage is provided at no cost to the
employee after 30 days of hiring.
F. Retirement program. All full-time employees will be
eligible to be enrolled in the New Jersey Retirement Program in accordance
with the terms of that policy.
G. Life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.
All full-time employees will be eligible to participate in the group
life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance program, in
accordance with the terms of that policy.
H. Worker's compensation. All employees are fully insured
for any illness or injury arising out of and in the course of their
employment with the Borough. In order to appropriately document any
such incident, all accidents/injuries must be reported on an accident
report form (a copy is provided as Appendix C) as soon as possible after such an occurrence. Completed
reports are to be given directly to the Borough Clerk.