06-18-07 A-6631-05T5; A-0593-06T5
The Union County and Camden County Assistant Prosecutors'
Associations appeal decisions of the Public Employment Relations
Commission denying their petitions for initiation of compulsory
interest arbitration under the Police and Fire Public Interest
Arbitration Act, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-14a to -16.6 (the Act). The
Act allows law enforcement officers engaged in performing police
services to utilize the compulsory interest arbitration
procedure of N.J.S.A. 34:13A-16 as a means of resolving
collective bargaining impasses between law-enforcement employees
and their public employers.
We held assistant prosecutors are not engaged in performing
police services within the scope of the Act because assistant
prosecutors: are employed by county prosecutors to perform legal
services in furtherance of county prosecutors' law enforcement
activities, are not vested with statutory police powers, and are
not enumerated in the non-exclusive list of employee groups
entitled to utilize compulsory interest arbitration.
