Police and Fire Unions

What we do for police and fire unions

• Collective bargaining and contract negotiations with the municipality, county or fire district.
• Grievances and disciplinary hearings under the contract.
• Unfair practice charges before the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC).
• Civil Service Commission appeals, including promotion disputes and list removals.
• Appearances before the State Board of Mediation, the Office of Administrative Law and the New Jersey courts.

When police or fire negotiations reach an impasse, the dispute can go to interest arbitration through PERC, where an arbitrator sets the contract terms. Our article on PERC explains how that works.

How does PFRS accidental disability retirement work?

Accidental disability retirement pays two-thirds of your annual pensionable salary, measured at retirement or on the date of the traumatic event, whichever gives the higher benefit. To qualify you must be permanently and totally disabled from your own job, and from any other position your employer could assign you, as a direct result of a traumatic event during your regular or assigned duties.

You also have to have been an active PFRS member on the date of the event, still be a member in service when you file, and have left employment because of the disability. Applications are filed online through the Division of Pensions and Benefits Member Benefits Online System (MBOS). The Division does not accept paper applications, and it usually takes six to eight months to process one.

What counts as a traumatic event?

The courts have defined it as an occurrence that:

• is identifiable as to time and place;
• is undesigned and unexpected;
• is caused by a circumstance external to the member, and not by a pre-existing condition that the work aggravated or accelerated;
• occurred during and as a result of the member’s regular or assigned duties;
• was not the result of the member’s willful negligence; and
• leaves the member permanently and totally unable to perform their usual or any other duty.

Can PTSD qualify for accidental disability?

It can, but a mental disability caused by an event with no physical injury has to meet a stricter test. The disability must come from your direct personal experience of a terrifying or horror-inducing event involving actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a similarly serious threat to you or another person. The event also has to be one that could cause a reasonable person in similar circumstances to suffer a disabling mental injury.

How long do I have to apply?

Five years from the date of the traumatic event.

What if the board says it was not a traumatic event?

If the Board of Trustees finds you permanently and totally disabled, but not because of a traumatic event, it grants ordinary disability retirement instead, provided you have at least four years of New Jersey service. Ordinary disability pays 40 percent of final compensation, or 1.5 percent of final compensation for each year of service if that is higher.

You can ask for a hearing on the board’s decision. The request has to be made within 45 days of the date of the board’s written notice, or the decision becomes final.

Pension rules and deadlines change from time to time, and the facts of a case can affect which ones apply. Call us as soon as a letter from the board arrives and we will tell you where you stand.

Does workers’ compensation reduce a PFRS disability pension?

Yes, for accidental disability. Periodic workers’ compensation payments made after your retirement date reduce the pension dollar for dollar. Social Security and private insurance benefits do not reduce it.

The two claims are decided separately. Being approved for workers’ compensation or Social Security disability has no bearing on the pension board’s decision.

What are the deadlines when a police officer is disciplined?

In a department outside Civil Service, a complaint charging a violation of the department’s internal rules generally has to be filed within 45 days after the person filing it had enough information to do so. The hearing has to be set between 10 and 30 days after the complaint is served, and a complaint that misses these requirements must be dismissed.

The 45 days do not run while the officer is also under a related criminal investigation. In that case the clock starts the day after the criminal investigation is resolved.

In a Civil Service jurisdiction, major discipline is appealed to the Civil Service Commission, within 20 days of receiving the Final Notice of Disciplinary Action.

These deadlines come from statutes and regulations that do get amended, and your contract may add its own procedure on top of them. Call us as soon as you are served with charges, before the first hearing date, so we can check what applies to you.

Talk to us

Whether your union referred you or you are a union officer with a contract, grievance or member pension question, call the office in Monroe Township at (732) 521-5900 or send a message. We represent police and fire unions and their members across New Jersey.