February 10, 2009
"Bumping" to avoid losing your job
When the state pink slips a Grade 27 state employee, the worker ultimately "bumped" out of a job may be a Grade 18, thanks to the state civil service law.
The Times Union reports that Paterson administration officials have been meeting to discuss layoff procedures with representatives of the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation.
Governor David Paterson's proposed budget calls for 521 layoffs. Additional layoffs may be in the offing if unions reject his plea for them to forgo a 3 percent pay raise scheduled for April 1 and delay payment of one week's wages.
In explaining the layoff process, the Times Union writes:
Regardless of whether one believes mass layoffs are coming, two things are indisputable: carrying out layoffs for state workers is extremely complicated and fraught with procedural and legal pitfalls; and fewer and fewer people in the state bureaucracy have experience with layoffs since there haven't been any notable reductions in force, as layoffs are called, since the early 1990s.
"It gets fairly complicated," said CSEA spokesman Stephen Madarasz. "When you get to a layoff, it's not as simple as, "OK, you go, then OK, you go out the door."
(snip)While state workers have a seniority system that demands newer employees be laid off first, seniority often takes place within job categories and within state agencies.
State agencies allow workers to "bump" less senior people, but they can do so on a regional or state basis, depending on the particular agency, Madarasz said.
In addition to bumping someone in a similar job, people can also "retreat" or choose to be placed in a lower-paying job.
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