[IPAC-List] Civil service eligible lists and USERRA

[Lance Seberhagen]

There is no reliable and valid way to convert (or equate) a score from 
one promotional exam to another promotional exam.This is especially true 
in public safety promotional exams in which candidates are ranked down 
to a fraction of a point.Therefore, the one remaining candidate from the 
old eligible list should be required to take the new promotional exam 
and compete on an equal basis with all other applicants.

If the last remaining candidate on an eligible list were away on 
military duty, he/she would not be available for promotion, so the 
selecting official would have no choice but to administer another 
promotional exam if the vacant position needs to be filled before the 
candidate returns from military duty.

Under USERRA, returning military members generally have the right to be 
re-employed in the job that they would have attained if they were not 
absent for military service.However, candidates on an eligible list have 
no guarantee of promotion, and their status on the eligible list has a 
limited duration.Therefore, it does not appear that returning military 
members have a right to a promotion, or a spot on a new eligible list, 
unless there is case law to the contrary.

*USERRA Fact Sheet*

http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/userra_fs.htm


Signature - Seberhagen & Associates

*Lance Seberhagen, Ph.D.
Seberhagen & Associates
9021 Trailridge Ct
Vienna, VA 22182
Tel 703-790-0796
www.seberhagen.com
*



****

On 3/26/2013 1:45 PM, Partain, Steven C. wrote:

>

> To those of you practicing in civil service-regulated environments, I 

> have a question that is pretty esoteric and may not resonate with 

> anyone, but I thought I'd give it a shot with this group:

>

> We have local civil service rules (which must be consistent with 

> principles of state civil service law) providing the appointing 

> authority two names from the top of a ranked eligible list to be 

> considered for one promotional vacancy.  When the list is comprised of 

> a single individual, the appointing authority may elect to consider 

> that individual in isolation, or cancel the list to exercise its right 

> to two eligibles to consider, and conduct a new exam to generate a new 

> eligible list.  If the latter, the individual who was impacted may 

> transfer his/her eligibility to the new list based on previous score 

> but can opt to retest and take higher score.

>

> I don't know how typical that structure is in other civil service 

> environments, but my question is really about removing this transfer 

> of eligibility provision altogether.  We're exploring the idea of 

> eliminating this provision but are concerned about impact to legally 

> protected groups.  The primary one that comes to mind is military 

> service personnel covered under USERRA.  If Joe Guard is deployed and 

> unavailable to be considered for a vacancy, and the list is cancelled 

> (prior to expiration), it would seem that at a minimum USERRA would 

> require us to extend his eligibility.

>

> Again, I don't know how common this eligibility transfer provision is 

> in other civil service rules, so this may not resonate.  But if anyone 

> has a parallel set of provisions and has addressed this, I would 

> appreciate your input.

>

> Thanks,

>

> *____________________________________________________*

>

> *Steven Partain | HR Manager*

>

> Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue

>

> Direct: 503-259-1292

>

> www.tvfr.com <http://www.tvfr.com/>

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________________

> IPAC-List

> IPAC-List at ipacweb.org

> http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/ipac-list


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nine.pairlist.net/pipermail/ipac-list/attachments/20130327/95c43943/attachment-0001.htm>