Headen v. Jersey City Board of Education

55 A.3d 65, 212 N.J. 437, 2012 N.J. LEXIS 1325
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedNovember 15, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 55 A.3d 65 (Headen v. Jersey City Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Headen v. Jersey City Board of Education, 55 A.3d 65, 212 N.J. 437, 2012 N.J. LEXIS 1325 (N.J. 2012).

Opinion

Justice LaVECCHIA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Plaintiff Valeria Headen is a ten-month employee in the career service in the Jersey City School District (District). The District is subject to the provisions set forth in the New Jersey Civil Service Act, N.J.S.A. 11A:1-1 to :12-6 (Civil Service Act or Act), because it opted to adopt Title 11A, see N.J.S.A. llA:9-2 to -7 (establishing means by which political subdivisions may become civil service jurisdictions). As a food service worker, she works a full day, ten months per year, in accordance with the school calendar. Headen commenced this action against her employer, seeking declaratory relief and compensation for vacation time that she claimed was due to her and to fellow class members, under Civil Service Act requirements governing vacation leave for career service employees of political subdivisions.

The trial court granted plaintiffs employer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the complaint. The court concluded that the Civil Service Act’s vacation leave provisions are inapplicable to ten-month school employees of plaintiffs class. Amplifying the reasoning in support of that conclusion, the Appellate Division affirmed. Headen v. Jersey City Bd. of Educ., 420 N.J.Super. 105, 108, 18 A.3d 1072 (App.Div.2011). We granted certification to review the matter. 208 N.J. 370, 29 A.3d 742 (2011). We now hold that the judgment dismissing Headen’s claim is affirmed, but the rationale for that judgment is modified.

School districts that have adopted the Civil Service Act are political subdivisions for purposes of the Act’s requirements. Thus, the Act’s provisions apply except for the few statutory exemptions that free school districts from certain of the Act’s [440]*440requirements. In this appeal, we hold that the Civil Service Act’s paid vacation leave provisions apply to career service, non-teaching staff employees of school districts that have opted to be part of the civil service system, including ten-month employees in the career service like plaintiff. The Act and its implementing regulations establish a floor for the amount of leave to be provided to such school district employees. We further hold Headen’s claim properly was dismissed because a collectively negotiated agreement has already provided her with more than the minimum paid vacation leave to which she is entitled under the Act. The matter is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

Plaintiff is employed by the defendant Jersey City Board of Education (Board)1 as a food service worker on a full-time ten-month basis. She filed a complaint in February 2009 against the Board alleging that because the District is governed by the provisions of the Civil Service Act,2 she and potential class members are entitled to vacation leave under the Act, specifically N.J.S.A. llA:6-3 and -7, and the Act’s implementing regulations.

N.J.S.A. llA:6-3 provides as follows in respect of the minimum amount of paid vacation time:

Vacation leave for fall-time political subdivision employees shall be at least:
a. Up to one year of service, one working day for each month of service;
b. After one year and up to 10 years of continuous service, 12 working days;
e. After 10 years and up to 20 years of continuous service, 15 working days;
d. After 20 years of continuous service, 20 working days; and
[441]*441e. Vacation not taken in a given year because of business demands shall accumulate and be granted during the next succeeding year only; except that vacation leave not taken in a given year because of duties directly related to a state of emergency declared by the Governor may accumulate at the discretion of the appointing authority until, pursuant to a plan established by the employee’s appointing authority and approved by the commission, the leave is used or the employee is compensated for that leave, which shall not be subject to collective negotiation or collective bargaining.

N.J.S.A. llA:6-7 directs that a proportionate amount of leave be provided for part-time employees of political subdivisions covered by the Act. By regulation, the Civil Service Commission, which is the successor to the former Merit System Board, see L. 2008, c. 29, has specified how leave time shall be calculated for full- and part-time employees in the career service of State and local appointing authorities, see N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.2 (governing vacation leave).

By order dated August 31, 2009, the trial court certified the matter as a class action, with the class defined as “all full-time ten-month employees of the Jersey City Board of Education in career service (excluding employees in the unclassified service).” There is no dispute that proper notice was sent to all class members.

When plaintiff commenced her action, the terms and conditions of her employment were governed through collectively negotiated agreements (CNAs). We draw our recitation of the facts from the pertinent CNA in effect at the commencement of litigation. In addition, we rely on unrebutted statements from the certification provided by the District’s Assistant Business Administrator, Adrian Podzielny, submitted in opposition to plaintiffs motion for summary judgment and in support of the Board’s cross-motion for summary judgment.

Based on the Assistant Business Administrator’s certification, plaintiff and her fellow ten-month employee class members are salaried employees whose “annual pay is based on 200 work days, which encompass the paid recesses and her two-day convention leave.” The CNA specifically requires one-hundred-eighty-six actual work days which “excludefs] weekends, holidays, Christmas and Spring recess, and the NJEA convention recess.” In accor[442]*442dance with the CNA, during the school year, the 776 potential class members have “at least twenty-eight days off with pay — 11 days off with pay for recesses, 2 days off with pay for conventions, and 15 days off with pay for holidays.” The certification affirms that, as a ten-month employee, plaintiffs salary has never been reduced for her absences from work during breaks or holidays. Plaintiff has not submitted any evidence to the contrary.

After discovery was complete, plaintiff filed a motion for partial summary judgment, which the Board opposed. The Board also filed a cross-motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted the Board’s motion while denying plaintiffs motion.

In granting summary judgment to the Board, the trial court found N.J.S.A llA:6-3 inapplicable to school district employees for three reasons. First, the court noted that school district employees do not receive traditional “vacation” days because they are not employed during the summer and they receive paid time-off days during scheduled winter and spring school breaks. Thus, the court determined that an expansive application of N.J.S.A. 11A:6~3 allowing even more “unscheduled” paid vacation leave would not further the objectives of the Civil Service Act. Second, the court relied on Title 18A, a separate Title compiling statutes governing public education.

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Bluebook (online)
55 A.3d 65, 212 N.J. 437, 2012 N.J. LEXIS 1325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/headen-v-jersey-city-board-of-education-nj-2012.