Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(a) General provisions.
(1) The Chief Administrator of
the Courts shall place on a preferred list the names of all employees suspended
or demoted from the same or similar positions in the same jurisdictional class
paid by the same fiscal authority, in accordance with the provisions of section
25.30 of this Part. This preferred
list shall be used for filling vacancies in the same jurisdictional class paid
by the same fiscal authority in the following order: first, in the same or
similar position; second, in any position in a lower title in line of
promotion; and third, in any position comparable to the lower title in line of
promotion. Such position need not be in the same promotion unit or unit for
suspension or demotion as the employee's original position. Except as provided
in paragraph (2) of this subdivision, no person shall be appointed from any
other list for any such position until such preferred list is
exhausted.
(2)
Employees reassigned to positions in the Unified Court System pursuant to
section 25.30(f) of this
Part, and suspended employees who have accepted appointments from a preferred
list to positions other than their original positions pursuant to this section,
may be reassigned to their original positions in their original courts or
court-related agencies as vacancies occur, in order of seniority. The failure
or refusal of an employee after reasonable notice to accept reassignment to
such original position shall be deemed a relinquishment of his or her
eligibility for reassignment to such position pursuant to this
subdivision.
(3) The
eligibility to be reinstated or reassigned pursuant to this subdivision shall
not continue for more than four years from the date of reassignment, suspension
or demotion.
(4) An
employee who is eligible to be placed on a preferred list pursuant to this
section and who elects, as a member of a public employee retirement system, to
retire upon a suspension or demotion, shall be placed on a preferred list and
shall be eligible for reinstatement from such list.
(b) Order of reinstatement from
preferred lists. Persons on a preferred list who were suspended or demoted from
positions in courts or court-related agencies paid by the same fiscal authority
shall be reinstated therefrom to vacancies in appropriate positions in the
order of their original appointment. The following exceptions shall apply:
(1) Where the vacancy exists in
a separate unit for suspension or demotion, persons suspended from or demoted
in that unit shall be reinstated first.
(2) No person suspended or demoted
before the completion of his or her probationary term shall be reinstated until
the reinstatement of all other persons on the preferred list. Upon
reinstatement, the probationer shall be required to complete his or her
probationary term.
(c) Salary upon reinstatement. A person
reinstated from a preferred list to his or her former position or a similar
position at the same salary grade shall receive at least the same salary
received at the time of suspension or demotion.
(d) Notwithstanding any other
provision of this Part, any person may voluntarily remove his or her name from
a preferred list by application to the Chief Administrator of the
Courts.
(e) Effect of
refusal or failure to accept reinstatement from preferred list.
(1) The failure or refusal of a
person on a preferred list after reasonable notice to accept reinstatement
therefrom to his or her former position, or any similar position in the same
salary grade for which such list is certified, shall be deemed to be a
relinquishment of his or her eligibility for reinstatement, and such name shall
thereupon be stricken from such preferred list. The name of such person may be
restored to such preferred list, and certified to fill such appropriate
vacancies as may thereafter occur, only upon the request of such person and
such person's submission of reasons satisfactory to the Chief Administrator of
the Courts for his or her previous failure or refusal to accept
reinstatement.
(2)
Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (1) of this subdivision, a person
on a preferred list shall not be deemed to relinquish eligibility for
reinstatement therefrom by reason of a failure or refusal to accept
reinstatement to a position in a different city or county from that in which
the former position was located, or to a position in a lower salary grade than
the position from which he or she was suspended, demoted or displaced. The name
of such person may, however, be withheld from further certification for
reinstatement to a position in such other city or county or in the same or a
lower salary grade than the position to which he or she failed or refused to
accept reinstatement.
(3) The restoration of the name of a
person to a preferred list, or restoration to eligibility for certification
therefrom to positions in any particular city or county or to positions in a
lower salary grade than the former position, shall not invalidate or in any
manner adversely affect any appointment, promotion, reinstatement, displacement
or demotion previously made to any position to which such person would
otherwise have been eligible for reinstatement from such preferred
list.
(f)
Disqualification for reinstatement. The Chief Administrator of the Courts may
disqualify for reinstatement from a preferred list, in the manner set forth in
subdivision 7 of section
81 of the
Civil Service Law, any person who is physically or mentally disabled from the
performance, with or without reasonable accommodation, of the essential
functions of the position for which such list is established, or who has been
guilty of such misconduct as would warrant his dismissal from the public
service.
(g)
Limitations of use of preferred list. A preferred list established pursuant to
this section shall have no priority with reference to a new position created by
the reclassification of an existing position pursuant to this Part whenever the
use of a preferred list for filling such new position would result in the
suspension of an employee pursuant to the provisions of section
25.30 of this Part.
(h) The provisions of section
25.26 of this Part shall not apply
to the implementation of this section.
