---------------RULE VIII--------------- TRANSFER, LEAVE OF ABSENCE, LAY OFF, RESIGNATION AND LAYOFF/RECALL RULE VIII, Section 1 TRANSFER The transfer of an employee from one position to another in the same classification or to a classification which is similar with respect to duties and compensation, may be made in accordance with the procedure developed by the Director of Human Resources. An employee may not transfer if the examination which resulted in his/her appointment did not adequately test the skills required for the classification to which he/she wishes to transfer. RULE VIII, Section 2 LEAVE OF ABSENCE WITHOUT PAY (1) Leave of absence without pay for a period not exceeding thirty days may be granted by the department head or appointing authority. (2) Leave of absence without pay for a period exceeding thirty days may be granted by the department head or the appointing authority to any employee on regular appointment when the requesting employee; (a) has been elected to an unclassified position in the county service or has been elected to a position in the unclassified service of the State of Wisconsin. Such leave of absence shall be continuous during the entire period that the employee receives compensation in such elective position; (b) has some physical disability proved to the satisfaction of the department head or appointing authority, provided that such leave shall not exceed one year unless, in the discretion of the Director of Human Resources it is deemed necessary to extend such leave, in which case the leave may be extended to cover a total period of not more than two years. Before approving a request for leave in such instances, the employee shall be required to be examined at least ten days before such leave shall become effective by a physician designated by the Director of Human Resources and in such manner prescribed by the Director of Human Resources, and such physician shall certify as to the necessity of the employee absenting himself from duty because of illness. During such period of leave, the employee shall not be gainfully employed elsewhere and the Director of Human Resources reserves the right to have such employee re-examined by a designated physician at specific intervals, and particularly, before the employee is permitted to return to duty. If the physical disability was brought about by injury incurred, without negligence on the part of the employee, in the performance of his/her duty, the period of leave may be prolonged at the discretion of the Director of Human Resources; or (c) is required to be absent because of the physical disability, illness (16) or death of a member of his/her immediate family, provided that such leave shall not exceed six months; or (d) is requesting such leave subsequent to the birth or adoption of his/her child providing the leave requested does not exceed six months; or 14 (e) is a member of the armed forces of the United States, whether by enlistment or draft, including the United States Coast Guard, army and navy nurses corps, active field or overseas service for the American Red Cross and any other organization directly connected with the armed forces of the United States; or has been ordered by the federal government to perform either full or part time work for any private or public employer engaged in defense work; and provided that upon the return of such absentee from active service, he/she shall be restored to such position or similar position provided that; 1. he/she presents a certificate or other evidence that he/she has satisfactorily completed his/her period of training or service; 2. he/she is still qualified to perform the duties of such position; 3. he/she makes application for re-employment within 90 days after he/she is relieved from such training or service, and 4. the employer's circumstances have not so changed as to make it impossible or unreasonable to so re-employ such person; provided, further, that the person certified to his/her position in his/her absence shall be transferred to a similar position, or his/her name placed on the appropriate layoff/recall list, in accordance with the provisions of this rule. Service toward seniority or salary advancement shall be deemed not to be interrupted by such military service, provided that persons occupying a probationary status on commencing such military service shall revert to such status upon returning to active employment. No leaves of absence provided for under this paragraph shall be granted to employees holding temporary appointments at the time an application for such leave is made, or to any employee for periods in excess of four years; or (f) is entering upon a course of training or study for the purpose of improving the quality of his/her service to the county, or of fitting himself/herself for promotion; provided, however, that no such leave shall be granted for a period exceeding one year and that such leave shall be continuous for said period. The Director of Human Resources may approve an educational leave of absence for more than one year, but not more than three years if the purpose of the leave is to further the employee's education in a field pertinent to that in which he/she is employed, providing the employee agrees to return to County service following the expiration of the leave, for a period of time equivalent to the leave; all employees granted an educational leave must submit transcripts or proof of courses or training taken while on leave, as may be required by the department head, appointing authority or Director of Human Resources; or (g) has been given a temporary or emergency appointment in a position in the service of Milwaukee County, provided, however, that such leave shall expire as soon as such temporary or emergency appointment has been terminated; or (h) employees in the classified service may request a leave of absence without pay to become a candidate for political office; or (i) has requested a leave of absence without pay for a reason not noted above which has been approved by the Director of Human Resources. Any employee aggrieved by the decision of the Director of Human Resources may appeal the Director's decision to the Civil Service Commission within ten days of being informed of the decision. (17) (3) Leave of absence shall not be given or extended within six months after return from a leave of thirty days or more, except in the case of physical disability, military service, educational leaves or acceptance of another position in the classified service, unless such leave of absence or an extension of a leave of absence beyond the time limits noted above has been approved by the Director of Human Resources. The decision of the Director of Human Resources may be appealed to the Civil Service Commission within ten days of the employee's receipt of such decision. (4) An employee who is on a leave of absence shall notify the department head, either in person or in writing, of his/her readiness to return from such leave at least ten days before the date of expiration of his/her leave. (5) An employee who receives a leave of absence without pay for six months or more shall be on leave from the classification held and, upon expiration of the leave of absence, may return to his/her former position only if it is vacant. If there are no vacancies in the classification upon the leave's expiration, the employee's name shall be placed on the layoff/recall list for two years and one day. (18) RULE VIII, Section 3 LEAVE OF ABSENCE WITH PAY (1) Leave of absence with pay other than vacation, may be granted to any employee compensated on a bi-weekly or annual basis who is required to work half time or more, or to an hourly employee who is customarily employed 40 hours in each calendar week, who has been engaged in the county service for a period of at least six months previous to the granting of such leave, on account of temporary physical disability, or injury or other cause of absence which is considered by the department head or appointing authority as sufficient and legitimate excuse for the employee's failure to be present and in attendance on his duties; (a) provided that such leave of absence with pay may be allowed at the rate of three and seven-tenths hours for each pay period as provided by ordinance during which there were no unpaid absences of more than thirty hours a pay period, except absences due to disabilities incurred in line of duty or leave for military service; (b) provided, however, that such leave of absence with pay shall accrue during the first six months of service but shall not be granted until the completion of six months of service, unless injury or disability is incurred in line of duty; (c) provided, however, that reasons for the absence and the good faith of the employee in taking such leave shall be supported by such reasonable evidence as may be required by the department head or appointing authority; (d) provided, further, that when the illness of an employee is such as may make it necessary to take a leave of absence of more than three days, a statement shall be made to the department head or appointing authority in writing accompanied by a certificate from a licensed physician, or a personal affidavit of the employee, or by a certificate from an authorized Christian Science practitioner, or other acceptable documentation stating the nature and severity of such sickness; (e) provided, further, that unused leave as provided in Section (1)(a) hereof shall accumulate on an unlimited basis. The Director of Human Resources shall credit to each officer and employee his/her sick leave balance as shown on the records of the Department of Humans Resources as of December 31, 1960, and thereafter any sick leave earned but unused shall be added to such balance. If any officer or employee subsequently requires additional sick leave, he/she may also be granted, subject to the provisions of this section, any earned sick leave unused during the entire period of his/her continuous service prior to December 31, 1960. The Director of Human Resources, however, shall not be required to compute such additional sick leave in advance of the need therefore. Continuous service shall be considered to be any service in which there has been no interruption by layoff in excess of two years or by resignation or involuntary separation; (f) provided, further, that the vacation, personal time, compensatory time and sick leave allowances provided in the ordinances may be combined in the event of long continued illness of an employee with the approval of the department head or appointing authority; (g) provided, further, that excused time may, in addition to other reasonable causes, include exclusion from employment because of quarantine due to contagious diseases or because of death or serious illness in the immediate family of the employee, when the employee's presence is required. Immediate family is defined as husband, wife, child, brother, sister, parent, or foster parent; and it shall not be necessary that such persons shall have resided with the employee to come within such classification. Not to exceed three days of leave with pay may be allowed because of death in the immediate family, whenever both death and funeral occur in Milwaukee or its vicinity. Whenever either death or the funeral occurs elsewhere, additional travel time may be allowed as leave with pay. Any excused time in excess of three days, other than the aforementioned, shall be granted only with the approval of the department head or appointing authority; provided further, that where one day is authorized, it must be taken on the day of the funeral. Where more than one excused day is allowed, such days must be consecutive calendar days, one of which is the day of the funeral. Where travel time is allowed, one travel day must precede the funeral and one travel day must follow the funeral day. Scheduled off days shall be considered as part of the total funeral leave allowed when such off days follow within permissible bereavement leave days when such days are consecutive. Scheduled vacation days following within the bereavement period may be rescheduled for liquidation during the remainder of the year; (h) provided, further, that in cases where an employee is incapacitated by reason of injuries or sickness resulting from his/her employment and is entitled to workmen's compensation, said employee may be kept on the payroll and paid that portion of his/her regular compensation during the period of accumulated sick leave to which such employee may be entitled in accordance with County Ordinances and/or labor contracts. Any payment made herein before shall be in lieu of any payment or award made under the workmen's compensation law of this state, or if an award is made thereunder, such payment shall be applied thereon; (i) provided, further, that the department head or appointing authority may make such investigation or require such medical examinations as are warranted to substantiate or verify the employee's illness or claims to other excused absences; (j) provided, further, that employees who have applied for retirement by filing an application with the proper officials of the retirement system of which they are members shall be permitted to take any unused leave accumulated under the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, and in accordance with County Ordinances and labor contracts; (k) provided, however, that all leave accrued under the provisions of this section to the credit of any employee and unused shall be canceled if the employee resigns from the service or if there is a separation from the service of more than ninety days except by authorized leave or by layoff. (2) Leave of absence with pay may be granted to liquidate legal holidays or necessary overtime, provided that; (a) employees who are required to work overtime or on a legal holiday or on a regularly scheduled off day, for which they are not compensated, shall be allowed compensatory time off within the thirteen pay periods following the pay period in which the overtime or holiday was worked, unless otherwise authorized by the Director of Human Resources; (19) (b) no compensatory time shall be allowed for any accumulative overtime period of less that one-half hour. (2) Leave of absence with pay may be granted to: (a) employees who are required to work on a legal holiday for which they are not compensated, may be allowed compensatory time off within the thirteen pay periods following the pay period in which the holiday was worked, unless otherwise authorized by the Director of Human Resources; (20) (b) employees who are not included in the Executive Compensation Plan may be granted compensatory time off during the thirteen pay periods following the pay period in which overtime is worked, unless otherwise authorized by the Director of Human Resources. No compensatory time shall be allowed for any accumulative overtime period of less than one-half hour. 20 (3) Leave of absence with pay to serve as vacation, including any legal holidays that occur within such periods, shall be granted, subject to the approval of the department head or appointing authority, to persons engaged in county service for a period of at least one year previous to the granting of such leave. Vacations will not be allowed to part-time employees unless they are regularly engaged on a monthly basis for employment of one-half time or more. (4) An employee resigning from service may be granted his/her entire vacation balance at the time of resignation provided he/she is entitled to such vacation under the provisions of these rules. (5) An employee retiring from service may be granted his/her entire vacation balance prior to his/her retirement, provided he/she is entitled to such vacation under the provisions of these rules. (6) No more than two members of any employee organization shall be allowed time off with pay to attend meetings of the committees of the county board on matters in which such organization has an issue, except that such permission shall not apply during the period of the year when the county budget for the succeeding year is under consideration; provided that (a) the authorized representative of each organization shall file with the Departments of Labor Relations and Human Resources and the appropriate department head a list of employee members to whom such leave with pay may be applicable; (b) the authorized representative of each organization shall notify, in writing, the department head or appointing authority of the department in which the member to be excused works at least three days before the day of the meeting; (c) payment shall be for only those hours of the meeting which occur during the member's regularly schedule work day. RULE VIII, Section 4 LAYOFF OF REPRESENTED EMPLOYEES (21) (1) Whenever it becomes necessary, through lack of work or funds, to reduce the number of represented employees in any classification in the classified service, the department head or appointing authority of the department concerned shall notify the Director of Human Resources of the number of represented employees to be laid off, including (titles of positions) their classification. Upon receipt of such notice the Director of Human Resources shall give to the department head or appointing authority the names and addresses of the represented employees who should be first laid off in accordance with these rules (or) unless the appropriate County Ordinance or labor contract provides a different procedure. (2) Unless the appropriate County Ordinance or labor contract deems otherwise, the order of layoffs shall be as follows: (a) termination of the least senior represented employee in the classification on emergency appointment; (b) termination of the least senior represented employee in the classification on temporary appointment; (c) layoff of represented employees on regular appointment, beginning with the represented employee in the classification and department affected with the least county-wide seniority. (3) Any represented employee who legally enters the county classified service by virtue of a transfer or consolidation of a department of any municipality with a department of the county government, shall continue to enjoy seniority rights based upon this total period of employment in the municipality from which he/she was or is being transferred to the county, but such provision shall not be construed to give such represented (22) employee any stronger seniority rights than those enjoyed by persons who have been legally in the county classified service for an equivalent period of time. (4) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the layoff of a represented 22 employee not having the lowest seniority upon written request of such employee, approved by the Director of Human Resources. RULE VIII, Section 5 LAYOFF FOR NON-REPRESENTED EMPLOYEES When it is necessary to reduce staffing levels within a department, non-represented employees may be laid off based on: seniority, or job performance, or attendance, or continued ability to fund the individual position, or need to retain employees with special skills, experience or knowledges which are critical to program functioning, or any combination of the above. When seniority is used for the laying off of a non-represented employee, the following applies except when mandatory or voluntary time off without pay is used to meet fiscal constraints: (1) the Department of Human Resources will make every reasonable effort to place non-represented employees who would be affected by a seniority based layoff in order of their seniority in comparable vacancies. Where such vacancies exist, non-represented employees will be required to accept such placement. (2) seniority based layoff of non-represented employees shall be made within classification on a county-wide basis in the inverse order of total county-wide seniority. (3) non-represented employees in pay range 23 or below who are laid off pursuant to paragraph (2) above shall have a right to another position in the county service in accordance with the following procedure, provided that no non-represented employee with greater county-wide seniority is displaced thereby: Displace the least senior non-represented employee in the next lower class series, provided that the non-represented employee being placed in the lower classification has the ability to do the work. For the purpose of this section, class series shall mean a number of classes of positions which are substantially similar as to the types of work involved and differ only in rank as determined by the importance of the duties, the degree of responsibility involved and the amount of training and experience required. Such classes constitute a series and each is given a designation of rank by Roman numerals, beginning with the lowest level as I, next II, etc. Where classifications have different title code descriptions, they shall not be included within the same class series. (4) Non-represented employees in pay range 23 or lower who are displaced as the result of another non-represented employee exercising rights under the above procedure shall have the right to exercise their seniority under the same provisions as noted in (3) above. (5) non-represented employees on emergency or temporary appointment in the affected classifications shall be terminated prior to the seniority based layoff of non-represented employees on regular appointment. Non-represented employees laid off shall have their names placed on the layoff/recall list for three years and one day and shall be recalled to vacancies in the classification previously held or in the same class series in the inverse order of layoff. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the layoff of a non-represented employee not having the lowest seniority upon written request of such employee, approved by the Director of Human Resources. RULE VIII, Section 6 RESIGNATION (1) The resignation of an officer or employee from the classified service shall be made on forms prescribed by the Director of Human Resources and shall be filed with the department head or appointing authority. The effective date of such resignation is that date noted on said form, which shall be filed with the Director of Human Resources. (2) The department head or appointing authority shall, upon notification that an officer or employee has absented himself/herself from duty for a period of four successive days or longer, without notice to his superior officer, make a good faith attempt to contact the absented officer or employee by telephone and by certified mail at the last known address of such absented officer or employee. If the department head or appointing authority is unable to contact the absented officer or employee, or if the absented officer or employee fails or is unwilling to return to classified service, the department head or appointing authority may consider this action a resignation for which 'Resignation in Absentia' forms, as prescribed by the Director of Human Resources, shall be prepared, accepted and filed by the department head or appointing authority within thirty (30) days from the fourth successive day of absenteeism. The forms shall be filed with the Director of Human Resources. The resignation shall be effective as of the date noted on such form. (3) Upon approval of the Director of Human Resources, the name of an employee resigning from the county classified service may be restored to the appropriate eligible list, subject to the rules and regulations governing all eligible lists. (4) (a) Any person occupying a position in the unclassified service shall, during the period of such unclassified service, be entitled to apply for and participate in examinations to the classified service for which he/she is qualified and, if successful, certified and appointed, said employee shall be entitled to all rights and benefits, had said employee been in the classified service throughout this period. (b) Rule I, Section 1(16) and (19) shall be deemed to include persons described in 1 above. RULE VIII, SECTION 7 FAILURE TO RETURN FROM LEAVE Failure of an employee to report within four (4) days of the expiration of the leave of absence shall make him/her subject to the rules and procedures set forth in Section 6(2), which provides for a resignation in absentia. RULE VIII, SECTION 8 LAYOFF/RECALL (1) When any officer or employee has been laid off in accordance with the rules of the commission, the person so laid off shall have precedence for recall to a vacancy in the same group and salary and of the same character and standard of work and shall be recalled in the order hereinafter provided. The procedure in notifying and certifying such employee for recall shall be the same as in the case of an eligible for original appointment. In case there be no persons entitled to recall, the vacancy shall be filled by the certification of an eligible for original appointment. (2) The order of recall of employees from layoff lists shall be in the reverse of the layoff order as provided in Section 4 of this rule. Whenever two or more employees are of the same seniority as provided by this rule, they shall take precedence in the order of the last four digits of their social security number. (3) Persons on any layoff/recall list shall at any time before re-employment be required to submit to a medical, physical, or performance test, including a written examination, if such written test is deemed necessary by the Director of Human Resources. If any such eligible is found deficient and below prerequisite standards for such employment, his/her name shall be permanently removed from the layoff/recall list for such classifications, provided that, his/her name may be placed on an eligible list for a lower grade classification if the tests reveal he/she meets the necessary prerequisites for such lower grade classification. (4) Any employee who is laid off and returned to service as a result of a certification from a layoff/recall list, to the same classification, shall be entitled to: (a) that step in the salary range which the employee was receiving at the time of layoff; (b) sick allowance earned during the employee's period of work prior to layoff, and (c) their new period of service added to their prior work period (seniority). RULE VIII, Section 9 APPEAL TO CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Director of Human Resources made pursuant to Rule VIII of the Rules of the Commission may appeal said decision to the Civil Service Commission. |