GENERAL COUNSEL’S CORNER


MILITARY LEAVE

As veterans return from active duty, some chiefs are finding that the former police officers are taking a little time to reapply for work. This is their right under the federal law. The period an individual has to make application for reemployment or report back to work after military service is based on time spent on military duty. For service of less than 31 days, the service member must return at the beginning of the next regularly scheduled work period on the first full day after release from service, taking into account safe travel home plus an eight-hour rest period. Typically this would apply to reservists and guardsmen returning from training. In that case, they must only inform their employers of their training obligations and report back at the “next regularly” scheduled working period. No particular form of notification is required by the law.

For service of more than 30 days but less than 181 days, the service member must submit an application for reemployment within 14 days of release from service. For service of more than 180 days, an application for reemployment must be submitted within 90 days of release from service.

Keep this in mind as well: once the veteran is reemployed, the employer cannot discharge the veteran except for cause, for one (1) year or six (6) months in the case of a reservist. Also, a returning veteran cannot have served more than five years on active duty since leaving the job to which the veteran requests reinstatement.

THINKING ABOUT RETIRING?

Don’t leave your replacement unprepared to step into your shoes (as your predecessor may have done to you!) Send your possible replacement(s) to MPI’s 10-part Executive development series. One day a month, starting in September and running through new June, new and potential chiefs will review many of the “hot topics” that they really need to know to hit the ground running once they become chief. Budgeting, discipline, internal affairs, technology, human resources laws, Rule & Regulations, Policies & Procedures, working with unions, ICS, firearms licensing, management rights and even personal asset protection are all included. The price is very low ($75/day) and you can save if they sign up for the entire 10-part series for $600.

CIVIL SERVICE LAYOFFS

Once an Appointing Authority has made decisions regarding the size of personnel cuts and the areas and titles to be affected, the employment status of the individuals serving in those titles should be carefully researched and reviewed. The order starts with emergency, then provisional and next temporary employees. Then part-time and last, full time employees may be laid off. Keep in mind that M.G.L. Chapter 31, Section 26 requires that disabled veterans shall be retained in employment in preference to all other persons.

If layoffs must be made from among employees holding full-time permanent appointments in the same title, such layoffs are made according to the employees’ seniority in the unit. Seniority is defined as the first date of permanent civil service employment after certification from an eligible list. In the case of an employee holding permanent status in anything other than an entry level title, the seniority date is not determined by the date of appointment to the higher title but by the original date of permanent appointment to a civil service position, unless that seniority date has been interrupted by breaks in service or a transfer, as defined in M.G.L. Chapter 31, Section 33, except that, in certain cities or towns, Special Acts have been passed that apply to public safety forces, which Acts regulate layoffs according to seniority in grade.

It is essential that the correct Civil Service seniority date, not the local longevity date or effective date of a promotion, be used in determining the order of layoff from among permanent Civil Service employees.

Intermittent and reserve employees need not be terminated in the event of a layoff, but may not be worked to fill the vacancy created by the separation of a permanent employee.

DEMOTION RIGHTS

A tenured employee who has received notice of separation may file with his municipal or state Appointing Authority, within seven days of such notice, a written consent to demotion to a position in the next lower title or titles in succession in the official service or to the next lower title or titles in the labor service, as the case may be, if there is an employee in those titles junior in seniority. Tenured employees who opt for demotion waive their rights to a hearing concerning their layoff before the municipal or state Appointing Authority or the Civil Service Commission.