H. B. 2132
(By Delegate Blair)
[Introduced February 11, 2009; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-8g of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to allowing bus operators for
county school systems to carry-over years of experience
operating buses for purposes of determining seniority.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-8g of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.
§18A-4-8g. Determination of seniority for service personnel.
(a) Seniority accumulation for a regular school service
person:
(1) Begins on the date the employee enters upon regular
employment duties pursuant to a contract as provided in section
five, article two of this chapter;
(2) Continues until the service person's employment as a regular employee is severed with the county board; and
(3) Does not cease to accumulate when the county board has
authorized an absence whether without pay or due to illness or
other reason over which the employee has no control.
(b) Seniority accumulation for a substitute service person:
(1) Begins on the date the employee enters upon the duties of
a substitute as provided in section fifteen of this article, after
executing with the county board a contract of employment as
provided in section five, article two of this chapter; and
(2) Continues until the employee enters into the duties of a
regular employment contract as provided in section five, article
two of this chapter; or employment as a substitute service person
with the county board is severed.
(c) Seniority of a regular or substitute service person does
not continue to accumulate under the following conditions:
(1) When a service person is willfully absent from employment
duties because of a concerted work stoppage or strike; or
(2) When a service person is suspended without pay.
(d) For all purposes including the filling of vacancies and
reduction in force, seniority shall be accumulated within
particular classification categories of employment as those
classification categories are referred to in section eight-e of
this article.
(e) When implementing a reduction in force, the service person with the least seniority within a particular classification
category shall be properly released and placed on the preferred
recall list. The particular classification title held by a service
person within the classification category may not be considered
when implementing a reduction in force.
(f) On or before September 1 and January 15 of each school
year, county boards shall post at each county school or working
station the current seniority list or lists of each service
personnel classification. Each list shall contain the name of each
regularly employed school service person employed in each
classification and the date that each employee began performing his
or her assigned duties in each classification. Current seniority
lists of substitute school service personnel shall be available to
employees upon request at the county board office.
(g) The seniority of a service person who transfers out of a
class title or classification category of employment and
subsequently returns to that class title or classification category
of employment is calculated as follows:
(1) The county board shall establish the number of calendar
days between the date the service person left the class title or
category of employment in question and the date of return to the
class title or classification category of employment.
(2) This number of days shall be added to the service person's
initial seniority date to establish a new beginning seniority date within the class title or classification category.
(3) The service person then shall be considered as having held
uninterrupted service within the class title or classification
category from the newly established seniority date.
The seniority of an employee who has had a break in the
accumulation of seniority as a result of being willfully absent
from employment duties because of a concerted work stoppage or
strike shall be calculated in the same manner.
(h) Beginning on July 1, 2007, a substitute school service
person shall acquire regular employment status, but not regular
employee job bidding rights or regular seniority, if the employee
receives a position pursuant to the leave of absence or suspension
provisions of subdivisions (2) and (5), subsection (a), section
fifteen of this article.
(1) A substitute service person shall accumulate substitute
employee seniority while holding a position acquired pursuant to
subsections (2) and (5).
(2) Upon termination of the regular service person's leave of
absence or suspension, the substitute service person shall return
to the status previously held.
(3) County boards are not prohibited from providing any
benefits of regular employment for substitute service personnel,
but the benefits may not include regular service personnel employee
status or seniority.
(i) If two or more service personnel accumulate identical
seniority, the priority shall be determined by a random selection
system established by the service personnel and approved by the
county board.
(1) A board shall conduct the random selection within thirty
days of the time the service personnel establish an identical
seniority date. All service personnel with an identical seniority
date within the same class title or classification category shall
participate in the random selection.
(2) As long as the affected employees hold identical seniority
within the same classification category, the initial random
selection conducted by the board shall be permanent for the
duration of the employment within the same classification category
of the employees by the board. This random selection priority
applies to the filling of vacancies and to the reduction in force
of school service personnel.
(3) If any other service person subsequently acquires
seniority identical to the employees involved in the original
random selection, a second random selection shall be held within
thirty days to determine the seniority ranking of the new employee
within the group.
(A) The priority between the employees who participated in the
original random selection remains the same.
(B) The second random selection is performed by placing numbered pieces of paper equal to the number of employees with
identical seniority in a container. Any service person who was not
involved in the original random selection shall draw a number from
the container which will determine his or her seniority within the
group as a whole.
(C) This process will be repeated if any additional service
person subsequently acquires identical seniority.
(D) The same process shall be used if any additional service
person is subsequently discovered to have the same seniority as the
original group of employees but who did not participate in the
original random selection due to oversight or mistake.
(j) Service personnel who are employed in a classification
category of employment at the time when a vacancy is posted in the
same classification category of employment shall be given first
opportunity to fill the vacancy.
(k) Seniority acquired as a substitute service person and as
a regular service person shall be calculated separately and may not
be combined for any purpose. Seniority acquired within different
classification categories shall be calculated separately. If a
school service employee applies for a position outside of the
classification category he or she currently holds, and if the
vacancy is not filled by an applicant within the classification
category of the vacancy, the applicant shall combine all regular
employment seniority acquired for the purpose of bidding on the position.
(l) A school service person who holds a multiclassification
title accrues seniority in each classification category of
employment that the employee holds and is considered an employee of
each classification category contained within his or her
multiclassification title. A multiclassified service person is
subject to reduction in force in any category of employment
contained within his or her multiclassification title, based upon
the seniority accumulated within that category of employment. If
a multiclassified service person is subject to a reduction in force
in one classification category, the service person retains
employment in any of the other classification categories that he or
she holds within his or her multiclassification title. In that
case, the county board shall delete the appropriate classification
title or classification category from the contract of the
multiclassified employee.
(m) When applying to fill a vacancy outside the classification
categories held by a multiclassified service person, seniority
acquired simultaneously in different classification categories is
calculated as if accrued in one classification category only.
(n)
A bus operator shall receive credit for seniority
accumulation for the years of service and experience in which they
were operating a school bus in another state or county.
(n) (o) The seniority conferred in this section applies retroactively to all affected school service personnel, but the
rights incidental to the seniority commence as of the effective
date of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
allow bus operators for
county school systems to carry-over years of experience operating
buses for purposes of determining seniority.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.