It took 14 years and a 99-page investigation to settle who counts as management
Twenty-eight university employees in New Jersey can join unions after a court ruled their jobs do not qualify as managerial executive positions.
The New Jersey Appellate Division, on April 17, 2026, sided with the state's Public Employment Relations Commission in a classification dispute that had dragged on for more than a decade. At issue was whether mid-level employees at Kean University, Montclair State University, and The College of New Jersey could be represented by the Council of New Jersey State College Locals (AFT) or the Communications Workers of America (CWA) – or whether their roles placed them in the managerial executive category, which under New Jersey law excludes employees from collective bargaining units.
The case traces back to 2012, when AFT filed a petition with PERC seeking to bring various job titles into its bargaining unit. The petition came on the heels of a 2010 change to New Jersey's Employer-Employee Relations Act, which narrowed the definition of who counts as a managerial executive among state employees. CWA later joined the effort, seeking to include additional employees.
The State of New Jersey pushed back, arguing that employees in 11 positions across the three universities held enough authority over policy to be excluded from union membership. The positions in question ranged from associate directors and assistant directors in residence life to research directors, a financial aid center director, and performing arts management roles.
PERC's Director of Representation spent years investigating the matter, holding conferences and hearings before issuing a 99-page decision in April 2024. The conclusion: these employees did not formulate or direct the implementation of management policies with the kind of independence the law requires. Their decisions were reviewed, approved, or overridden by higher-level supervisors. Their involvement in personnel matters like hiring and discipline required sign-off from human resources departments or vice presidents. Their policy work largely amounted to carrying out strategies set by others above them in the chain of command.
Only one position – Executive Director of Residence Life at Montclair State University – was found to meet the managerial executive threshold and was excluded from union eligibility.
PERC affirmed the findings in January 2025, applying a well-established three-part test that looks at where an employee sits in the organizational hierarchy, what their actual job responsibilities entail, and how much independent discretion they exercise. PERC emphasized that New Jersey's public policy favors including employees in collective bargaining, and that exclusions should be read narrowly.
The State appealed, arguing that PERC had set the bar too high by requiring employees to act without any oversight in order to be classified as managerial executives. The State contended that working collaboratively with superiors on policy should not automatically make someone eligible for union membership.
The Appellate Division disagreed. The three-judge panel found that PERC's decision was consistent with both the statute and longstanding precedent, drawing a clear line between employees who genuinely shape institutional policy and those who simply execute directives handed down from above. The court called the ruling a straightforward application of established legal principles.
For HR professionals, the case reinforces a practical reality: a title alone does not determine whether someone is management. What matters is the substance of the role – specifically, whether the employee exercises genuine, independent authority over policy, or whether their work product is filtered through layers of approval before anything is finalized.
The decision also underscores that classification disputes in higher education are not going away. As unionization efforts continue to gain traction across colleges and universities nationwide, the question of where management ends and the bargaining unit begins will remain a live issue for HR teams navigating workforce structure in the public sector.
The case is In the Matter of State of New Jersey and Council of New Jersey State College Locals, AFT, No. A-2515-24 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. Apr. 17, 2026).
