The Civil Service Commission of the American State of New Jersey is battling Camden County over a County worker who used a racial slur on the job.
The Commission is threatening fines of up to $US10,000 ($A13,700) if the County does not reinstate Betsy Ruggiero, a clerk-typist whom it tried to fire for using a version of the N-word at her workplace.
However, the County says it won’t allow Ms Ruggiero’s return while it continues to seek her dismissal.
Calling Ms Ruggiero’s behaviour “appalling”, Country spokesperson, Jonathan Young (pictured) called on New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy to look into the dispute “so we can root out institutional racism that the Civil Service Commission continues to protect.”
For its part, the Commission asserted: “It is in the public’s best interest that Camden County follow the Commission’s order.”
The County initially fired Ms Ruggiero after she used the offensive word during a personal call in front of co-workers.
An Administrative Law judge later reduced Ms Ruggiero’s penalty to a six-month suspension, finding she did not use the word as an insult or a threat and did not direct it at anyone in her presence.
In the ruling, the judge noted her claim that the word was “common and accepted in (her) social strata”.
The Commission then cut the penalty to a 30-day working suspension saying that while the use of a racially inappropriate term at work was unacceptable, the proposed suspension was not “in line with the tenets of progressive discipline”.
That ruling appeared to clear the way for Ms Ruggiero to return to her job in the County Purchasing Department and to collect back pay for the period since her suspension.
However, Mr Young said the County had “no intention to reinstate Ruggiero or resolve any back pay issues until all our appeals are exhausted”.
“The decision rendered by the Civil Service Commission and its continued belligerence is personally offensive to me as a black man and an elected official on a variety of different levels,” Mr Young said.
Trenton, 8 November 2020
