STATE OF LOUISIANA

DEPARTMENT OF STATE CIVIL SERVICE

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

 

General Circular No. 001463

To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: Proposed Changes to Civil Service Rules 6.16.3, 12.6, and 11.18 and Proposed New Rule 11.10.1

Issue Date: December 12, 2001

The State Civil Service Commission will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, January 9, 2002 to consider the following rule proposals. The hearing will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will be held in the Department of Civil Service Second Floor Hearing Room, DOTD Annex Building, 1201 Capitol Access Road, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The following will be considered at the meeting:

Amend Rule 6.16.3

6.16.3 Gainsharing

This rule establishes an incentive program designed to encourage increased efficiency and better performance in governmental operations. Subject to the provisions of Rule 6.29, and after obtaining a reward of monies from the incentive fund as established in the Louisiana Government Performance and Accountability Act, an appointing authority may implement an exceptional performance and gainsharing incentive reward program which provides for supplemental compensation to identify classified employees or classified employee groups responsible for efficiencies or exceptional performance. Where the agency is not covered by the Louisiana Government Performance and Accountability Act, the appointing authority shall obtain certification of efficiencies or exceptional performance as required by the Director of the Department of Civil Service. Employees must have been employed by the agency, program, or activity during the period when the efficiencies or the exceptional performance occurred and at the time the reward is distributed. Monetary rewards shall not be part of the classified employee’s base pay, but rather shall be a lump sum reward not to exceed 20% of their annual base salary. Such reward shall not be considered in the determination of retirement benefits. Each appointing authority’s supplemental compensation plan must be approved by the Civil Service Commission prior to distribution of the monies. The plans shall be posted in a manner that assures their availability to all employees. Such public posting shall identify the reward recipients and the amount received by each recipient.

EXPLANATION

This amendment will ensure that the rule more closely follows the parameters set in the Louisiana Government Performance and Accountability Act.

Amend Rule 12.6

        12.6    Non-disciplinary Removals

The provisions of this rule shall be made generally available to all employees. An employee may be non-disciplinarily removed under the following circumstances. When an employee is removed under this Rule, the adverse consequences of Rules 6.5(c); 7.5(a)7; 8.9(d); 8.13(a)7; 8.15(d); 8.18(d) and (e); 11.18(b) and 17.25(e)4 shall not apply.

(a) Absence from Work

An employee may be removed under the following circumstances:
      1. When, on the effective date of removal, the employee is unable to perform the essential functions of his job due to illness or medical disability and he has fewer than eight (8) hours of sick leave to his credit and his job must be performed without further interruption. When an employee is non-disciplinarily removed under this provision, he shall be paid for all remaining sick leave.

        2. OR

      2. When an employee has more than nine (9) unscheduled absences during any consecutive 26-week period. "Unscheduled absences," for the purpose of this rule, shall be defined by the appointing authority. One unscheduled absence may be any continuous period of absence, regardless of its duration. Approval of leave, after the fact, to cover an unscheduled absence shall not prevent the absence from being considered unscheduled.
    1. …
    2. When the employee holds more than one position in the state service and the multiple employment causes an employing agency to be liable for overtime payments under the Fair Labor Standards Act and, after having been provided an opportunity to do so, the employee has refused to resign from one of the positions.

EXPLANATION

Proposed subsections (a)1 and (a)2 are optional for use by appointing authorities. Subsection (a)1 would allow non-disciplinary removals for absences due to illness or disability only when, on the date of removal, the employee has fewer than eight hours of sick leave to his credit (as opposed to the present provision that all sick leave must be exhausted) and the duties of his job must be performed without further interruption. When agencies have utilized these removals, some have had time-consuming difficulty in assuring that the employee has no creditable leave and the change to fewer than eight hours balance will be less burdensome administratively and help ensure accuracy as to when an employee may be separated. Subsection (a)2 allows an employee's removal for frequent, unscheduled absences from work. The intent of these amendments is to give agencies more practical means of dealing with absenteeism, which is a significant obstacle to good employee morale and productivity in state government. These amendments are proposed not to punish employees, but rather to accomplish the following:

  1. to consider the greater good of the state service by reducing unscheduled, disruptive absenteeism and encouraging responsible leave usage by employees
  2. to raise employee morale by reducing the negative effects of absenteeism on co-workers who must often perform the duties of the absent employee
  3. to improve the state's service to its clients and customers by promoting good employee attendance

This proposal will remove from agencies the difficulty of proving leave abuse or the taking of disciplinary action for such absences. Rather, agencies could remove employees based solely on degree of absenteeism, including unscheduled absences (subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act). Through this simpler means of controlling absenteeism, supervisors will be empowered to improve morale and productivity.

One unscheduled absence referred to in subsection (a)2, may be of any continuous duration (e.g., fifteen minutes, one hour, four hours, one day, three days, etc.). The appointing authority must set a policy concerning such absences, which includes the minimum period of absence which shall be used by the agency in determining an employee's number of "unscheduled" absences. In some agencies or for some groups of employees, an unscheduled absence of as little as 15 minutes may be extremely disruptive, while in other agencies or for other groups of employees, only unscheduled absences which exceed four hours would be disruptive.

The appointing authority may have different policies for different groups of workers due to different work situations. For example, a policy defining unscheduled absences for shift-workers at 24-hour institutions may vary from another one established for that institution's daytime office workers. Unscheduled absences may also include those requested by employees to leave work early. These policies must be made generally available to employees.

Agencies may apply these provisions on a case by case basis, considering rational business reasons and the consequences of a particular employee's absence. Unscheduled absences for some positions are more disruptive than for others. Of course, an agency must never discriminate against employees based on race, sex, etc. Should the Civil Service Commission adopt this amendment, no absences which occurred before the date of such adoption will be allowed to count toward the number of unscheduled absences for separation as stated in subsection (a)2. An appointing authority, before removing a permanent employee under Rule 12.6, must follow the pre-removal process stated in Rule 12.7. If after this process is followed, the appointing authority decides to remove the employee, he or she must be given prior written notice of such removal in compliance with Rule 12.8, even though such a removal is not a disciplinary action.

In cases of removal under subsection (a)1, the employee would be paid for all remaining sick leave. This provision for payment of sick leave upon separation is unique to this type of removal, because the employee is ill or disabled and is therefore entitled to be compensated for legitimate sick leave that he was unable to use due to his separation, which is not the case in other types of removals or resignations.

Proposed subsections (b) and (c) retain current provisions for non-disciplinary removals, although proposed subsection (c) has been moved from its placement in the current subsection (a).

Adopt Rule 11.10.1

11.10.1 Payment for Sick Leave When Employee Is Non-disciplinarily Removed under Rule 12.6 (a)1

When an employee is removed in accordance with Rule 12.6 (a)1, he shall be paid the value of his accrued sick leave in a lump sum, based on his regular hourly rate of pay, unless he is reemployed in probational or permanent status in the classified state service or is reemployed in the unclassified service, without a break in service of one or more working days, in which cases the sick leave will transfer to the employing agency.

EXPLANATION

This rule requires that when an employee is non-disciplinarily removed under the provisions of Rule 12.6 (a)1, that he be paid for his remaining accrued sick leave, unless he is reappointed without a break in service of one or more working days, in which case his leave will transfer to the employing agency. This provision for payment of sick leave upon removal is unique to the type of removal stated in Rule 12.6(a)1 because the employee is ill or disabled and is therefore entitled to be compensated for legitimate sick that he was unable to use due to his removal, which is not the case in other types of removals or resignations.

Amend Rule 11.18(a)

             11.18    Cancellation or Continuance of Annual and Sick Leave
    1. When an employee separates from the state classified service, all accrued annual leave except that which must be paid and all accrued sick leave except that which must be paid under Rule 11.10.1 shall be cancelled; however, if the employee is reemployed in probational or permanent status in the classified service or is reemployed in the unclassified service without a break in service of one or more working days, all of the employee's annual and sick leave shall be transferred to the employing agency.
    2. …
    3. …
    4. …
    5. …

EXPLANATION

This amendment accommodates newly proposed Rule 11.10.1 requiring payment for all remaining sick leave for employees who are non-disciplinarily separated under Rule 12.6 (a)1. This provision for payment of sick leave upon separation is unique to this type of removal because the employee is ill or disabled and is therefore entitled to be compensated for legitimate sick leave that he was unable to use due to his separation, which is not the case in other types of removals or resignations.

Persons interested in making comments relative to these proposals may do so at the public hearing or by writing to the Director of State Civil Service at Post Office Box 94111, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70804-9111.

If any accommodations are needed, please notify us prior to this meeting.

Sincerely,

 

 

Allen H. Reynolds

Director