For Immediate Release:
Monday, May 13th, 2013
“Broad Banding Titles” Would Open Civil Service to Patronage, Corruption & Nepotism With No Public Input
(NEW JERSEY) – Today, Communications Workers of America’s New Jersey State Director Hetty Rosenstein is testifying at a State Government Committee hearing on Governor Chris Christie’s scheme to gut Civil Service and eliminate most competitive promotions with nearly no public input. The hearing will be held at 11 am in Statehouse Committee Room 16 and was called by Committee Chair, Assemblywoman Linda Stender. Others representing those hurt by this wrong-headed proposal – such as the disabled, veterans, LGBT and people of color– will testify, as well.
“Broad banding” titles would hurt hundreds of thousands of workers, as well as expose every single New Jerseyan to higher taxes due to corruption, cronyism, nepotism and patronage. The plan is a wholesale attack on New Jersey’s working families, women, the disabled and people of color. Moreover, it will virtually eliminate veterans’ preference in hiring and promotions.
“This latest Christie scheme will create more patronage and more corruption at all levels by subjecting Civil Service promotions to the whims of political pressure,” said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA NJ State Director. “Christie’s proposal erodes basic worker protections by gutting a long-standing, transparent, objective system of merit-based promotions. Disabled workers, veterans, LGBT workers, women, workers of color and older workers will all have a major barrier to discrimination dismantled. Amazingly, this is the most radical civil service change in half-a-century, yet the first time requests for public hearings have been flatly denied.”
Governor Christie’s proposal essentially abolishes nearly all objective and transparent measures for promotions and replaces them with "advancement” that will be open to political pressure at all levels of government – municipal, county and state. The Civil Service Commission is seeking to bypass mandated requirements by "broad banding" titles, even though New Jersey’s Constitution requires public jobs be awarded through a competitive testing process wherever possible. Now, management would have latitude to unilaterally “advance” favored workers through the band – based solely on managerial assessment – rather than requiring competitive examination or any formal testing procedures. This would eliminate objective, transparent measures – such as lists of promotion-eligible workers and public postings of who was awarded the position. Moreover, since veterans preference is tied to promotions, this scheme virtually eliminates veterans preference for promotions.
The Christie Administration held a single public hearing in Trenton on the proposal at 3pm on April 10th - a workday. It was virtually impossible for workers opposed to Christie’s proposal to have their voices heard. Those people directly affected deserve a true public process and an opportunity to have their concerns addressed their concerns. Even several legislators, with more flexible schedules, had difficulty attending this sole hearing. Christie has continuously denied requests for more hearings at times and locations when working people all over the state can have a chance to be heard. So, CWA launched a petition for supporters to call on the Civil Service Commission to schedule additional public hearings locations, dates and times. The petition can be viewed and signed at www.cwanj.org.
The Communications Workers of America (AFL-CIO) represents both private sector and public workers. CWA represents more than 70,000 working families in New Jersey, including over 40,000 state workers, 15,000 county and municipal workers, and thousands of workers in the telecommunications, airlines, health care and direct care industries. It represents thousands of public workers both in Civil Service jurisdictions and those that have not adopted Civil Service.
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