Bill would ‘give teeth’ to ignored laws banning sick leave jackpots for public workers

Legislators advanced a bill Thursday that would implement reforms a state watchdog recommended over the summer after discovering that local governments have done little to control extravagant sick leave payouts to public employees.

The Assembly’s judiciary committee released the bill over objections from several labor leaders, with the lawmakers agreeing with acting state Comptroller Kevin D. Walsh that legislators need to “give teeth” to two laws passed in 2007 and 2010 that were meant to limit such payouts.

Walsh first sounded the alarm in July after examining sick leave payouts in 60 of New Jersey’s 564 municipalities. He found that nearly all of them had continued making large annual payments to public workers for accrued sick time and failed to cap accrual payouts, in violation of laws allowing such payouts only at retirement and limiting them to $15,000 for workers hired after May 2010.

“When one sees there are 95% of the municipalities, at least in our sample, that are disregarding the law, that’s bad for our state. It’s bad for respect for the law,” Walsh testified Thursday. “It’s not something we as a state should be proud of when there is such a fundamental departure from what the Legislature thought was going to happen.”

Under a bill sponsored by Assemblymen Roy Freiman (D-Somerset) and Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), the state would order municipalities to certify a compliance officer to ensure sick leave accrual laws are being followed.

That provision is key, Walsh said.

“It’s really important that accountability be front and center here, that responsibility for enforcing what can be challenging when there are settled expectations that go in the other direction, so it’s not diffused who approved this,” he said.

The bill also would require municipalities to review staff to clearly identify who is subject to the laws and who’s exempt. Municipalities would also have to post their sick leave payout policies online and approve payouts at public meetings.

If there are improper payments, the bill would allow the state to forbid municipalities from raising local taxes until they comply with the law, as well as withhold whatever state funding it might normally give the municipality in the amount overpaid, as a penalty for noncompliance.

A state police union official testified against the bill, saying sick leave is part of the compensation negotiated in police contracts. Michael Freeman, a vice president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, urged legislators to exempt police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and other first responders from those impacted by the law.

A union official from the Communications Workers of America Local 1037 also objected for similar reasons.

But committee members directed both to explain their objections to Freiman for possible amendments.

Assembly members Vicky Flynn (R-Monmouth) and Robert Auth (R-Bergen) abstained from voting, saying the bill was not ready to advance because of the labor concerns. But a majority of committee members agreed to advance it.

The committee also advanced several other bills, including one that would restrict the use of samples obtained from the state’s newborn screening program to anything other than disease detection and another that would bar non-disparagement provisions in discrimination cases.