After a sweeping report into the New Jersey State Police’s internal affairs, the state’s largest troopers union is calling for the reinstatement of a pregnancy policy it says would have prevented some issues before they happened.
The independent report, authored by Kaufman Dolowich attorney Karol Corbin Walker, found that State Police policies do not provide adequate medical leave for pregnant and postpartum troopers. The third-party report found troopers on maternity leave faced regular “integrity checks” that came during doctors’ visits or breastfeeding, among other issues regarding the distribution of pregnancy-related medical leave.
The report, years in the making and created independently of state authorities, touched on several other significant issues, including alleged bias in State Police promotions. Attorney General Matt Platkin called for a plethora of reforms to the State Police, including a new leave policy for pregnant and postpartum troopers.
The State Troopers Fraternal Association told the New Jersey Globe that a comprehensive maternal leave program was “rescinded” at the direction of state officials and is now part of an ongoing arbitration. State officials said in filings that the short-lived pregnancy policy, which granted eight weeks of recovery leave after giving birth — violated state and federal discrimination laws.
The STFA has argued in filings that the state failed to negotiate changes in medical policy and disrupted recovery leave for at least one trooper.
“The Office of the Attorney General has long recognized the importance of appropriate pregnancy and lactation accommodations to ensure that women in law enforcement positions are treated fairly at work, and has taken several steps toward that goal,” said a spokesperson for the OAG. “As the first Attorney General to issue guidelines to ensure accommodations for all pregnant officers in August 2022, Attorney General Platkin has emphasized the importance of attracting more women to the law enforcement profession.”
In November 2021, the State Police issued a policy that offered troopers eight weeks of “recovery leave time” after giving birth. The STFA said the policy was created in partnership with the State Police’s Diversity and Inclusion Unit and was renewed the next year. The eight weeks of leave were not subject to restrictions that apply to normal sick leave, which includes requirements that the sick trooper must recover at home during the work day.
But the pregnancy policy unceremoniously disappeared from the State Police’s systems in September 2022, they said, as though the policy had never existed.
Since rescinding the policy, Walker’s report found that pregnant and postpartum troopers receive “unlimited sick leave” but are subject to sick leave-related procedures, including integrity checks meant to deter benefits fraud. Walker’s report said such checks were unnecessary for troopers who had just given birth.
After filing a grievance with the Division of State Police over the termination of the policy, the STFA said they were told the policy was rescinded after a formal legal review by state officials found the pregnancy policy was in “direct contradiction to State and Federal laws, EEOC guidance, and Attorney General’s Guidelines.”
According to filings, the state rescinded the policy because of worries that the rule treated pregnant employees more favorably than others. As such, the state feared the policy violated the Civil Rights Act and the NJ Law Against Discrimination.
A 2023 medical and sick leave policy currently covers pregnancy, post-pregnancy, and lactation, according to the OAG spokesperson.
The grievance over the policy went before the state’s Public Employees Relations Commission last year. In a filing, the STFA said at least one detective was denied the eight weeks of recovery leave time, though it’s unclear what other medical leave policies may have applied in that case. The STFA also argued in filings that the policy and its rescinding should have been negotiated with unions — an issue that appears to still be under arbitration.
The commission, though, rejected the state’s claims that federal and state law did not allow for the pregnancy policy and sent the case to arbitration.
The STFA argued the Walker report’s sections on pregnancy-related policies, which detail flaws in applying the broader medical leave policy to pregnancies, are in line with what troopers’ unions want.
“It seems AG Platkin himself hasn’t read the report close enough, as it is his office that has deprived our female troopers of recovery leave benefit and he has yet to re-instate the benefit contrary to Kaufman Dolowich’s recommendations and all at the expense of the New Jersey taxpayer,” Blanchard said.