Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 5, February 29, 2024
The words and phrases have the following meanings when used in
these rules unless otherwise indicated in the context. The masculine noun or
pronoun as used in these rules includes the feminine also.
(a)
General.
1. "Merit System Act" or "The Act" means Act
No. 58 of the Acts of 1939, approved by the Governor, March 2, 1939, also
codified at §§
36-26-1
through
36-26-83..
2. The term "Department" unless specifically
stated otherwise means the State Personnel Department, including the Board and
the Director.
3. The "Board" means
the State Personnel Board.
4. The
"Director" means State Personnel Director.
5. The term "Appointing Authority" means the
officer, board, commission, person, or group of persons having the power to
make appointments to offices of positions of trust or employment in the state
service.
(b)
Kinds of Appointments.
1. "Regular Appointments" means selection by
the appointing authority from the names certified by the Department of a person
to occupy a permanent position - subject to a working-test (probationary)
period of at least six months.
2.
"Temporary Appointment" means appointment of a person from an appropriate
eligible list, regardless of standing on the list, to a job for not more than
104 work days.
3. "Provisional
Appointment" is the appointment of a qualified person by an appointing
authority (with approval of the Director) to occupy a position without status
for a period of no more than 156 work days pending establishment of an
appropriate eligible register.
(c)
Registers.
1. An "Eligible Register" is a list of names
of persons who have successfully competed by examination arranged in order of
their final rating.
2. A
"Promotional Register" is a list of names of persons in a class who have met
the requirements (competitively) for promotion to a higher class ranked in
order of their final ratings.
3. A
"Reemployment List" is a list of names of classified persons with current
permanent status in a class who have been laid off, retired, or who have
resigned in good standing and requested within the time prescribed in these
rules that they be so listed.
(d)
Position Classification
System.
1. "Class" or "Class of
Positions" means a definitely recognized kind of employment in the classified
service designed to include all positions that are sufficiently alike, with
respect to the character of duties, responsibilities, and qualification
requirements, as to be treated alike under like conditions for all personnel
purposes.
2. "Classification Plan"
means an orderly arrangement of positions into separate and distinct classes so
that each will contain those positions which involve similar duties and
responsibilities as applied to positions designated in the Act as being in the
"Classified Service."
(e)
Pay Plan and Salary
Increases.
1. "Compensation
Plan" or "Pay Plan" means a schedule of salaries officially adopted by the
Board with the approval of the Governor consisting of minimum, intermediate and
maximum salary rates for each class of positions, so that all positions within
a class will be paid according to the same salary range.
2. "Performance Salary Advance" means the
advance or increase of an employee's present salary rate to a higher rate
within the range for the class of positions involved to recognize growth and
manner of performance in the job, including the successful completion of
probation.
3. "Promotional Salary
Advance" means the increase granted to an employee who is promoted from a
position to another position of a class assigned to a higher salary range in
recognition of the assumption of greater responsibility and more difficult and
complex work.
4. "Salary
Adjustment" means any change in an employee's salary rate other than a
performance or promotional salary advance; included may be (a) an adjustment to
a different rate in a higher salary range resulting from the reassignment of
the class to the higher range, only if the person is below the minimum salary
range, (b) an adjustment to a different rate in a higher salary range resulting
from the reallocation of the position to a class in the higher range (when
deemed not to involve a promotion), only if the person is below the minimum
salary range, (c) an adjustment to a lower rate as a result of voluntary
demotion or disciplinary action, and (d) an increase resulting from an
across-the-board increase in the rates of the salary schedule in recognition of
increases in prevailing rates in the labor market and the cost of
living.
5. "Assignment," when used
in salary administration, means the designation of a class to be paid according
to a particular salary range by specifying the range number.
6. "Reassignment," when used in salary
administration, means an officially adopted change in the range number
designation for a class.
(f)
Employees.
1. The "Classified Service" consists of all
positions in the state service not specifically exempt or placed in the
unclassified service by the Act.
2.
The "Unclassified Service" includes: one confidential assistant or secretary
for each elected officer, and one for each department head appointed by the
Governor, and one such confidential employee for each board and each
commission, and employees in the Governor's office who are not
exempt.
3. The "Exempt Service"
includes:
(1) officers elected by vote of the
people;
(2) officers and employees
of the Legislature;
(3) all
employees of a district attorney's office;
(4) members of boards and commissions,
whether appointed or self-perpetuating, and heads of departments required by
law to be appointed by the Governor or by boards or commissions with the
Governor's approval;
(5) all
officers and employees of the state's institutions of higher learning, teacher
training institutions and normal schools, educational, eleemosynary and
correctional* institutions which are governed and controlled by boards of
trustees or similar governing bodies and secondary agricultural schools and
vocational schools;
(6) all inmate
help in all charitable, penal and correctional institutions;
(7) all commissioned and warrant officers and
enlisted men of the National Guard and Naval Militia of the state, in their
respective military and naval grades;
(8) the Governor's private secretary, legal
advisor, recording secretary, and those employees of the Governor's office paid
exclusively out of the Governor's emergency or contingent funds; and
(9) the employees of the Alabama State Port
Authority engaged in railroad service and subject to the provisions of an Act
of Congress known as the Railway Labor Act, as amended or as it may hereafter
be amended. The services listed as exempt shall in no respect be subject to the
provisions of the Act or Rules, anything to the contrary
notwithstanding.
4.
"Employee" means a person legally occupying a position.
5. "Permanent Employee" means an employee who
has satisfactorily completed a working test period of at least six months, and
whose permanent appointment has been recommended by the appointing
authority.
6. "Permanent Position"
means any position in the classified service which has required or is likely to
require the services of an employee without interruption for a period of more
than 104 work days.
(g)
Kinds of Examinations.
1. "Assembled Examination" is a test where
applicants are required to assemble in one or more specified places at a
scheduled time for the purpose of taking the test (usually a written
test).
2. "Unassembled Examination"
is an examination and rating of the applicant's training and experience on the
basis of the application he submits and any other required supplementary
documents.
3. "Performance Test" is
a test where an applicant is required to demonstrate skills used on the job.
* Exemption does not apply to employees placed in the
classified service in accordance with laws governing the Department of Mental
Health and the Department of Youth Services and Board of Corrections.
4. "Oral Examination" is an
appearance by the applicant before a rating panel consisting of two or more
members who evaluate personal characteristics related to the job.
(h)
Separations from
Service.
1. "Layoff" is an
involuntary separation due to lack of work or funds or the abolition of a
position.
2. "Dismissal" is the
permanent removal of an employee for cause.
3. "Suspension" is the temporary removal of
an employee, up to a maximum of thirty calendar days in any one calendar
year.
4. "Resignation" is the
voluntary separation of an employee.
5. "Separation during probation" is the
removal of a probationary employee prior to receiving permanent
status.
6. "Job abandonment"
consists of three days of unexcused, unreported absences.
7. "Retirement" is the withdrawal from active
State service with a retirement allowance or optional benefit.
Author:
Statutory Authority:
Code of Ala.
1975, §§
36-26-1,
et seq;
36-27-1(19).