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Appointment to Positions in NYS's Civil Service

Appointment to Positions in NYS's Civil Service
Source: Adjunct Law Prof Blog; http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/
Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2010, Mitchell H. Rubinstein, Esq., Adjunct Professor of Law, St. Johns Law School and New York Law School, All rights reserved.

Harvey Randall, editor of New York Public Personnel Law, a blog which we read daily, just published an important article, Randall, Appointment to Positions in New York State's Civil Service, 24 Municipal Lawyer No. 4 (Fall 2010 NYS Bar Association). It spans 15 typed pages and contains 50 footnotes.

The article is full of helpful information concerning NYS Civil Service Law which can be, at times, quite confusing. A sample from the article provides:

Appointments to positions in the classified service are subject to the approval of the New York State Civil Service Department or a local Civil Service Commission or Personnel Officer, depending on the appointing authority involved.[i]A position in the classified service is typically a position in the competitive class or, as provided by law, it may be ?jurisdictionally classified? as a non-competitive class position, an exempt class position or a labor class position.[ii]

All classified service positions are automatically in the competitive class unless placed in a different jurisdictional class by the action of a civil service commission or by a statute.[iii]

An individual?s statutory rights[iv] with respect to his or her employment, including his or her right to administrative due process in a disciplinary situation, depend on the nature of his or her appointment by the responsible appointing authority of the State or a political subdivision of the State[v] and his or her status flowing therefrom.

[i] In contrast to positions in the classified service, positions in the unclassified service, which includes judges, elected officials, commissioners and educators, are not under, or subject to, the jurisdiction of a State or municipal civil service commission or Personnel Officer.

[ii] Civil Service Law §2.10.

[iii] In contrast to ?jurisdiction classification,? the term ?position classification? is used to describe the classification of a position in terms of the minimum qualifications for appointment to the position and the duties to be performed by the incumbent and, with respect to the State as an employer, the allocation of the position to a salary grade (Civil Service Law §2.11).

[iv] In some instances individuals not covered by a statute may be given an equivalent right pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement. One caveat: A right provided to an employee pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement may not trump a right provided to a co-worker by statute. See, for example, City of Plattsburgh v Local 788, 108 AD2 104, a case addressing a conflict between a Taylor Law contract provision and the Civil Service Law with regard to the layoff rights of employees.

[v] Another category: Individuals in the civil service are either officers or employees. It has been noted that although not all public employees are ?public officers,? all such ?public officers? are public employees.

This article can be purchased from the Municipal Law Section of the NYS Bar Association for $40 (you also get the entire volume where the article appears) or you can email Mr. Randall at publications@nycap.rr.com and he will send you that same article at no charge.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on December 22, 2010 (boomark / email).