S 1412 New Jersey Senate · 2026-2027 Regular Session

Revises certain laws governing police and fire interest arbitration.

This bill revises New Jersey's laws for negotiating police and fire department contracts and resolving disputes through arbitration. It requires negotiations to begin 120 days before a contract expires, with at least three meetings scheduled during that period, and establishes clear steps for handling impasses through mediation, fact-finding, and binding arbitration. The bill also changes how arbitrators are selected (requiring random selection by the commission if parties don't agree) and sets new qualifications, training, and conduct rules for arbitrators. It directly affects police and fire departments, their unions, and the Public Employment Relations Commission when negotiating or resolving contract disputes.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Feb 19, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Technical Review Of Prefiled Bill Introduced · 3 edits · Jan 13, 2026
MINOR
This diff reflects the transition of S 1412 from a technical review draft to its formally introduced version. The primary substantive addition is a STATEMENT section that summarizes the bill's provisions, including changes to arbitration procedures for police and fire disputes, extended timelines, increased fees, and the creation of an Impact Task Force. The remaining changes are minor punctuation corrections and administrative formatting updates.
SCOPE

A STATEMENT section was added summarizing the full scope of the bill: information exchange duties between parties, specific data requirements for public employers (unit member lists, salary steps, increment costs), a mutual arbitrator selection process with a 3-business-day window, removal of the requirement for panel arbitrators to demonstrate professional qualifications, extension of the arbitration opinion deadline from 90 to 150 days (with up to 30 additional days by extension, capped at 180 total), extension of appeal filing from 14 to 21 days, a 10-day post-award meeting requirement, increase in arbitrator fees from $1,000 to $1,500 per day (total cap from $10,000 to $15,000), repeal of award amount limitations, and establishment of a Police and Fire Interest Arbitration Impact Task Force.

TECHNICAL

Minor punctuation changes: added a period after 'disqualified]', changed '$1,000' to '$ 1,000', removed commas around 'but not limited to', and adjusted line wrapping in the Local Finance Board section.

Removed the 'TR' (Technical Review) designation from the bill number and removed the co-sponsor line for Senator McKnight, consistent with formal introduction of the bill.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
3
Key actions
0
Committee
1
Feb 19, 2026
Committee
Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee
upper
Jan 13, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee
upper
2 primary · 1 co-sponsor

Sponsors