[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Newfield 2-11-1992 by Res. No. 24-92 (Ch. 43 of the 1991 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Boards, committees and commissions — See Ch. 7.
Defense and indemnification — See Ch. 21.
Officers and employees — See Ch. 37.
A. 
This chapter summarizes the administrative policies and procedures of the Borough of Newfield, New Jersey. It is by no means comprehensive and does not constitute a contract between the Borough and its employees or any other party.
B. 
Changes may be made from time to time, as necessary, as recommended by the Personnel Director and approved by the Council.
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.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is on file in the office of the Borough Clerk.
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.
A. 
Regular Borough office hours are normally from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, with extended hours on Thursday until 8:00 p.m. Individual employee schedules will be established by the Director. Hourly employees will be entitled to a lunch break as scheduled. These breaks will not be considered as time worked.
B. 
Employees unable to report to work at their scheduled start time, or who cannot report at all that day, shall notify the Director as soon as possible. Chronic absenteeism or excessive tardiness will be cause for removal from service.
A. 
All employees of the Borough shall receive a written performance evaluation no less than once per year. The Personnel Director will be responsible to prepare the evaluations for all Borough employees and submit them to the Council for final approval and acceptance.
B. 
A copy of the evaluation form is provided as Appendix B.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix B is on file in the office of the Borough Clerk.
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:
(a) 
New Year's Day.
(b) 
Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
(c) 
Lincoln's birthday.
(d) 
Washington's birthday.
(e) 
Good Friday.
(f) 
Memorial Day.
(g) 
Independence Day.
(h) 
Labor Day.
(i) 
Columbus Day.
(j) 
Veteran's Day.
(k) 
Thanksgiving Day and day after.
(l) 
Christmas Day.
(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[1]) as soon as possible after such an occurrence. Completed reports are to be given directly to the Borough Clerk.
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix C is on file in the office of the Borough Clerk.