ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – LABOR and EMPLOYMENT
01-2- 6970 In the Matter of Kingston , App. Div. (per curiam) (14 pp.) The township of Verona appealed the decision of the Civil Service Commission reversing its decision to terminate Kingston’s employment as a laborer with the Department of Public Works after an incident in which he shoved a co-worker against a lab table after overhearing comments by the co-worker regarding his work attendance. The commission’s order was contingent on Kingston’s successful completion of a psychological fitness-for-duty examination. The panel found that the settlement entered into by the parties in response to disciplinary charges that had been issued against Kingston did not govern the matter as it was silent as to his termination and merely provided that he would serve a 130-day unpaid suspension and would obtain a fitness-for-duty report and it gave the township the option of obtaining a similar evaluation. It did not expressly condition his continued employment on receiving a satisfactory evaluation and did not say what would happen if, as occurred, the parties obtained conflicting evaluations. The panel held that the ALJ had applied the correct standard in requiring that Verona demonstrate by a professionally acceptable validation method that the traits or characteristics used to disqualify Kingston were actually related to job performance. It also found that there was sufficient evidence to support the ALJ’s conclusion that Kingston’s personality traits were not demonstrated in any manner to correlate with his job performance or to be predictors of his future performance. Finally, the panel concluded that conditioning Kingston’s reinstatement on the results of an updated fitness-for-duty evaluation was a reasoned exercise of discretion.
