To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: Computing Employees' State Service For Layoff

Issue Date: April 9, 1996

All agencies are urged to assure the accuracy of each employee's state service for layoff purposes. LEAVE WITHOUT PAY THAT IS OFFICIALLY DESIGNATED AS FAMILY OR MEDICAL LEAVE UNDER THE FEDERAL FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT IS COMPUTED FOR LAYOFF AS IS ANY OTHER LEAVE WITHOUT PAY. EMPLOYEES ARE NEITHER PRIVILEGED NOR PENALIZED FOR USE OF SUCH LEAVE WHEN COMPUTING SERVICE.

Civil Service Rule 1.39.2 determines service for layoff and should be shown to each employee so that he will know on what basis service time was calculated. Each employee should be told the importance and possible consequences of this computed service, and should be asked to sign as to the accuracy of the computation. It should be explained to each employee that service is computed on the basis of equivalent full-time service. To assist in converting part-time to the full-time equivalent, the following is an aid:

8 hours = 1 day
173 hours = 1 month (2080 hours per year divided by 12 months)
2080 hours = 1 year

All state unclassified employment, including that stated in Article V and Article X of the State Constitution (includes parish school boards, the legislature, state district courts, and student employment, among others), counts if earned before January 1, 1983. If an employee has retired from any state retirement system and has been rehired into state service, none of his service prior to retirement counts.

If an employee disagrees with the accuracy of his computation, he should be given a reasonable period of time to obtain verification of additional service he may claim. To the extent possible, this should be made uniform for all employees.

If a layoff plan is going to be submitted to Civil Service, an agency may wish to notify officially all employees within the affected organizational unit(s) that a cut-off date for changing their state service for layoff will be established. You may want to make this the date the Civil Service approval of the layoff is received by your agency. If employees can verify additional service after this date, such additional service may be used for later layoffs, but not for the currently approved layoff. Of course, this measure is suggested in order to administer properly a layoff in a timely manner. If the layoff affects so few employees that an agency chooses to accept changes in service time after the layoff plan is approved, it certainly may do so.

If you have questions about computing state service for layoff purposes, please contact our Personnel Management Division at 504-342-8274 or LINC 421-8274.

Sincerely,

Herbert L. Sumrall
Director