Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, after an offer of employment is made and prior to commencing employment, the Mayor and Council may require applicants to pass a physical examination in order to insure that they can perform the duties of their position without injury to themselves or others. The same post-offer physical examination must be performed on all applicants for a particular position. The Mayor and Council may require periodic physical examinations to determine the Employee's continued ability to perform the duties of the position. All physical examinations must be performed by a physician chosen by the Borough at the expense of the Borough. All medical records of Employees and prospective employees are confidential and are to be maintained by the Borough Clerk separate from the Employee's official personnel file. Medical exams may include tests for drug and alcohol use.

All tentatively selected applicants for employment by the Borough shall be advised by the Municipal Administrator before taking the physical examination that their appointment is being considered on the basis of information contained in their application for employment and the physical examination form. Consequently, any misstatements therein or pertinent information withheld shall be considered sufficient cause for immediate separation from the service of the Borough.

Except where state requirements direct otherwise, new Employees (or present Employees transferring to new positions) will be hired subject to an initial employment period of not less than six months, as determined by the Mayor and Council. During this initial employment period, the new Employee or transferee will be provided with training and guidance from the supervisor. At the end of the initial employment period, the supervisor will conduct an Employee evaluation; see Performance Evaluation Procedure. New Employees may be discharged at any time during this period if the Mayor and Council conclude that the Employee is not progressing or performing satisfactorily. Under appropriate circumstances, the Mayor and Council may extend the initial employment period.

Nothing in the procedure set forth in this section shall alter the Boroughs' employment-at-will policy. Employment with the Borough is at will and may be terminated at any time with or without cause or notice by the Borough or the Employee.

The Borough's communication media are the property of the Borough and, as such, are to be used for legitimate business purposes only. For purposes of this Communication Media Policy, "communication media" includes all electronic media forms provided by the Borough, such as cell phones, smartphones, computers, electronic tablets, access to the Internet, voicemail, e-mail, and fax. Employees are restricted from accessing or using the Borough's communication media for personal purposes during company time on company equipment without prior authorization from the Administration to do so.

All data stored on and/or transmitted through communication media is the property of the Borough. For purposes of this policy, "data" includes electronically stored files, programs, tables, databases, audio and video objects, spreadsheets, reports and printed or microfiche materials which serve a Borough business purpose, regardless of who creates, processes or maintains the data, or whether the data is processed manually or through any of Borough's mainframe, midrange or workstations; servers, routers, gateways, bridges, hubs, switches and other hardware components of the Borough's local or wide-area networks.

The Borough respects the individual privacy of its employees. However, employee communications transmitted by the Borough's communication media are not private to the individual. All communication media and all communications and stored information transmitted, received, or contained in or through such media may be monitored by the Borough. The Borough reserves the absolute right to access, review, audit and disclose all matters entered into, sent over, placed in storage in the Borough's communication media. By using the Borough's equipment and/or communication media, Employees consent to have such use monitored at any time, with or without notice, by Borough personnel. The existence of passwords does not restrict or eliminate the Borough's ability or right to access electronic communications. However, pursuant to New Jersey law, the Borough cannot require the Employee to provide his/her password(s) to his/her personal account(s).

All e-mail, voicemail and Internet messages (including any technology-based messaging) are official documents subject to the provisions of the Open Public Records Act (N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1). Employees of the Borough are required to use the assigned municipal e-mail account for all Borough business and correspondence. The use of private e-mail accounts for any Borough business or during business hours is strictly prohibited. Employees are hereby advised that if they conduct work-related business on their personal e-mails, cell phones, or other personal communication media, it is also subject to the provisions of the Open Public Records Act. However, nothing in this social media policy prevents Employees from using his/her own personal communication media during the Employee's non-working hours to engage or participate in protected concerted activities pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act.[1] Protected concerted activities include when an Employee addresses group concerns with the employer; forms, joins or helps a labor organization; initiates, induces or prepares for group action; or speaks on behalf of or represents other Employees. Nevertheless, Employees are encouraged to resolve workplace grievances internally by discussing issues with their supervisor and/or the Administration, and are asked to refrain from posting comments or materials on communication media that can be viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening, intimidating, or that could create a hostile work environment on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion or any other status protected by law if the Employee chooses to address their grievances using communication media.

Employees can only use the Borough's communication media for legitimate business purposes. Employees may not use Borough's communication media in any way that is defamatory, obscene, or harassing or in violation of any Borough rules or policy. Examples of forbidden transmissions or downloads include sexually explicit messages; unwelcome propositions; ethnic or racial slurs; or any other message that can be construed to be harassment or disparaging to others based on their actual or perceived age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, national origin, ethnicity, citizenship, marital status or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances. Further, discriminatory remarks, harassment, bullying, threats of violence and similar behavior that is not tolerated in the workplace are also not acceptable through communication media, whether same is performed on the Borough's equipment or on the Employee's own personal communication media.

All employees who have been granted access to electronically stored data must use a logon ID assigned by Borough. Certain data, or applications that process data, may require additional security measures as determined by the Borough. Employees must not share their passwords, and each employee is responsible for all activity that occurs in connection with his or her passwords.

Information security is necessary to protect the Borough's information (data and software) from accidental or intentional unauthorized disclosure, modification, or loss. Information security is managed under guidelines dealing with identification, authentication, authorization, production environment, and ability to audit. All Employees should be familiar with such security measures adopted by the Borough.

All Employees may access only data for which the Borough has given permission. All Employees must take appropriate actions to ensure that Borough data is protected from unauthorized access, use or distribution consistent with these policies. Employees may not access or retrieve any information technology resource and store information other than where authorized. All Borough data must be stored centrally as required by Borough. This provides greater security, and ensures backup of all Borough data is performed.

Employees must not disable anti-virus and other implemented security software for any reason, in order to minimize the risk of introducing computer viruses into the Borough's computing environment.

Employees may not install, modify or remove any hardware device, software application, program code, either active or passive, or a portion thereof, without the express written permission from the Borough. Employees may not upload, download, or otherwise transmit commercial software or any copyrighted materials belonging to parties outside of the Borough, or licensed to the Borough. Employees shall observe the copyright and licensing restrictions of all software applications and shall not copy software from internal or external sources unless legally authorized. Workstation settings and configurations and network settings must not be modified by unauthorized Employees. Internet security settings (where applicable) must not be changed. The foregoing includes but is not limited to the system's network ID (or computer name), IP address, gateway and DNS addresses, etc.

Social media and its uses in government and daily life are expanding each year. However, information posted on a website is available to the public. Therefore, Employees must adhere to the following guidelines for their participation in social media. Only those Employees directly authorized by the Administration may engage in social media activity during work time through the use of the Borough's communication media, as it directly relates to their work and it is in compliance with this policy.

Employees must not reveal or publicize confidential Borough information. Confidential proprietary or sensitive information may be disseminated only to individuals with a need and a right to know, and where there is sufficient assurance that appropriate security of such information will be maintained. Such information includes, but is not limited to, the transmittal of personnel information such as medical records or related information. In law enforcement operations, confidential, proprietary or sensitive information also includes criminal history information, confidential informant identification, and intelligence and tactical operations files.

No Borough Employee shall post internal working documents to social media sites. This includes, but is not limited to, screenshots of computer stations, pictures of monitors and/or actual documents themselves without the prior approval of the Municipal Administrator. In addition, Employees are prohibited from releasing or disclosing any photographs, pictures, digital images of any crime scenes, traffic crashes, arrestees, detainees, people or job-related incident or occurrence taken with the Borough's communication media to any person, entity, business or media or Internet outlet whether on or off duty without the express written permission of the Municipal Administrator. Except in emergency situations, Employees are prohibited from taking digital images or photographs with media equipment not owned by the Borough. For purposes of this section, an "emergency situation" involves a sudden and unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action, assistance or relief, and may include accidents, crimes and flights from accidents or crimes and the Employee does not have access to the Borough's communication media. If such situation occurs, Employee agrees that any images belong to the Borough and agree to release the image to the Borough and ensure its permanent deletion from media device upon direction from the Borough.

No media advertisement, electronic bulletin board posting, or any other communication accessible via the Internet about the Borough or on behalf of the Borough, through the use of the Borough's communication media, may be issued unless it has first been approved by the Borough's Administration. Specifically, Employees are forbidden from using the Borough's communication media to impersonate the employer; to make statements on behalf of the employer without authorization; and/or to make statements that can be construed as establishing what the employer's official position or policy is on any particular issue. In addition, Employees are prohibited from placing or posting on the Internet through the employer's communication media or the Employee's own personal media, either during working or nonworking hours, any employer-related confidential, sensitive or other employer information of a proprietary nature, including but not limited to employer records or documents, trade secrets, internal reports, tips based on inside information that may be considered insider trading, screenshots of computer stations, pictures of monitors and/or actual documents of the employer, any photographs, pictures, digital images of any crime scenes, traffic crashes, arrestees, detainees, people or job-related incidents or occurrences.

Because authorized postings placed on the Internet through use of the Borough's communication media will display on the Borough's return address, any information posted on the Internet must reflect and adhere to all of the Borough's standards and policies.

All users are personally accountable for messages that they originate or forward using the Borough's communication media. Misrepresenting, obscuring, suppressing, or replacing a user's identity on any communication media is prohibited. "Spoofing" (constructing electronic communications so that it appears to be from someone else without a legitimate authorized purpose and authorized by the Municipal Administrator) is prohibited.

Employees must respect the laws regarding copyrights, trademarks, and other Borough and third-party rights. Any use of the Borough's name, logos, service marks or trademarks outside the course of the Employee's employment, without the express consent of the Borough, is strictly prohibited. To minimize the risk of a copyright violation, Employees should provide references to the source(s) of information used and cite copyrighted works identified in online communications.

If Employees choose to identify themselves as a Borough Employee on their personal social media accounts and even those that do not should be aware that he or she may be viewed as acting on behalf of the Borough. As such, no Employee shall knowingly represent themselves as a spokesperson of the Borough, post any comment, text, photo, audio, video or other multimedia file that negatively reflects upon the Borough, expresses views that are detrimental to the Borough's mission or undermines the public trust or is insulting or offensive to other individuals or to the public in regard to religion, sex, race or national origin. Borough Employees are encouraged to exercise extreme caution posting photographs of themselves in uniform or in situations where they can be readily identified as Borough Employees.

To the extent that employees use social media outside their employment while engaging in protected concerted activities as defined above, Employees will not be subject to discipline or retaliation for expressing views, opinions, and/or facts surrounding the Borough's employment policies. For all other communications by Employees on personal social media sites in which matters related to the Borough are discussed, Employees must add a disclaimer on the front page stating that the posting does not express the views of the Borough, and that the Employees are expressing their own personal views. For example: "The views expressed on this website/web log are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer." The disclaimer must be placed in a prominent position and repeated for each posting that is expressing an opinion related to the Borough or the Borough's business, with the exception of postings and social media communications by Employees engaging in protected concerted activities. Employees are advised that if they post information on social media that is in violation of either the terms and conditions of the within social media policy, or in violation of federal, state, or local laws, the disclaimer will not shield them from disciplinary action. However, no retaliation or discipline will result if and when Employees are engaging in protected concerted activity, and/or choose to report inappropriate social media activities to the Borough Administration.

Nothing in these policies is designed to interfere with, restrain, or prevent social media communications by Employees engaging in protected concerted activities regarding wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act.[2] All Borough Employees have the right to engage in or refrain from such activities.

The Borough provides Internet access to its Employees in order to make available a vast array of information resources and to allow participation in and access to increasing county and state resources.

Employees must comply with all policies adopted by the Borough, including but not limited to policies regarding prohibition of discrimination and harassment and all applicable federal, state and local laws, including laws governing the transmission and dissemination of information while accessing the Internet.

Employees who are using Internet may not:

As stated in the Communications Policy above, the Borough reserves the right to monitor the Employee's Internet usage. In addition, the Borough has the right to restrict access to specific types of prohibited content through the use of a content filtering system.

The Borough encourages Employees with contagious diseases or life-threatening illnesses to continue their normal pursuits, including work, to the extent allowed by their condition. The Borough shall make reasonable accommodations to known physical and mental limitations of all Employees, provided that the individual is otherwise qualified to safely perform the essential functions of the job and also provided that the accommodation does not impose an unreasonable hardship on the Borough.

The Borough will take reasonable precautions to protect such information from inappropriate disclosure, including the following:

Managers and other Employees have a responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of Employee medical information. Anyone inappropriately disclosing such information shall be subject to disciplinary action.

The Borough recognizes that the possession or use of unlawful drugs and the abuse of alcohol pose a threat to the health and safety of all Employees. Any Employee who is observed by a supervisor or department head to be intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol or drugs during working hours or is under reasonable suspicion of same shall be immediately tested and is subject to discipline up to and including termination. The supervisor or department head will immediately report any reasonable suspicions to the Municipal Administrator.

An Employee will be required to submit to alcohol, drug or controlled substance testing when the Employee's work performance causes a reasonable suspicion that that Employee is impaired due to current intoxication, drug or controlled substance use, or in cases where employment has been conditioned upon remaining alcohol-, drug-, or controlled-dangerous-substance-free following treatment. Refusal to submit to testing when requested may result in immediate disciplinary action, including termination. Supervisors or department heads who observe behavior constituting reasonable suspicion are required to institute testing and do not have the option of sending the Employee home as an alternative.

The manufacturing, distribution, dispensation, possession, and use of alcohol or unlawful drugs on Borough premises or during work hours by Employees are strictly prohibited.

Employees must notify their supervisor within five days of conviction for a drug- or alcohol-related violation, whether or not the violation occurred in the workplace.

Employees who are required to maintain a commercial driver's license (CDL) are subject to random drug testing as required by the federal government.

Employees using prescription drugs that may affect job performance or safety must notify the Municipal Administrator who is required to maintain the confidentiality of any information regarding an Employee's medical condition in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Protection Act. Borough personnel who hold a commercial driver's license (CDL) are subject to the provisions of the commercial driver's licenses drug and alcohol testing policy.

No prescription drug should be used by any person other than the individual to whom it is prescribed. Such substances or nonprescription (over-the-counter) drugs should be used only as prescribed or indicated. Employees are prohibited from consuming prescription drugs that are not prescribed in their name on Borough property or while performing Borough business. Soliciting or distributing prescription drugs for or to other Employees is also strictly prohibited.

The Borough may install video surveillance camera systems within public buildings and throughout public areas within the Borough, primarily as visual deterrents of criminal behavior and for the protection of employees and municipal assets. In implementing these video camera systems, the Borough will ensure compliance with federal, state and local laws governing such usage.

The Borough's video surveillance camera systems are a significant tool to which the employees of the Borough will avail themselves in order to complete the goals and objectives of the Borough. Employees are only permitted to use the video surveillance camera systems for a legitimate purpose and with proper authorization. The Borough's designee will be responsible for authorization of users. The improper use of these systems can result in discipline up to and including termination.

No employee is permitted to view, continually watch, search, copy or otherwise use one of the Borough's video surveillance camera systems or tamper with access, archive, alter, add to, or make copies of any data that has been recorded and stored within any of these systems without 1) a specific legitimate purpose and 2) permission from the designee of the Borough.

The Borough shall designate a person to be responsible for the maintenance and administration of the video surveillance camera system. Such designee will be responsible for maintaining a user access log detailing the date and name of individuals who view/access a stored recording.

Any employee who becomes aware of any unauthorized disclosure of a video record in a contravention of this policy and/or a potential privacy breach has the responsibility to ensure that the Mayor, Municipal Administrator, and/or Chief of Police are immediately informed of such breach.

Background checks required. Criminal background checks are required of all candidates over the age of 18, whether for paid or volunteer positions, who will be working directly or indirectly with children/youth/minors. Criminal background checks will also be performed every three years for each Employee or volunteer who works directly or indirectly with children/youth/minors. The exact titles of Employees subject to background checks are all recreational positions, school crossing guards, library positions, and maintenance and administrative positions pertaining to such programs.

Background check procedure.

Conditions under which an Employee will be disqualified from working with children/youth.

Appeal process.