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ENROLLED
H. B. 4554
(By Delegates Shaver, Beach, Howard, Paxton,
Long, Canterbury and MezzatestaSPONSOR)
[Passed March 10, 2004; in effect from passage.]
AN ACT
to amend and reenact §18A-4-15 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the rights, privileges and
benefits of substitute service personnel employed to fill
vacancies created by leaves of absence, workers' compensation
and suspensions for more than thirty working days; and
considering certain bus operators to be employed in the same
building or working station.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That Enacting Section§18A-4-15Bill Title 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-4-15. Employment of service personnel substitutes.
(a) The county board shall employ and the county
superintendent, subject to the approval of the county board, shall
assign substitute service personnel on the basis of seniority to perform any of the following duties:
(1) To fill the temporary absence of another service employee;
(2) To fill the position of a regular service employee who
requests a leave of absence from the county board in writing and
who is granted the leave in writing by the county board, and to
fill the position of a regular service employee who is on workers'
compensation and absent: Provided, That if the absence is to
extend beyond thirty working days, the county board shall post the
position of the absent employee under the procedures set forth in
section eight-b of this article. If a substitute service employee
is employed to fill the position of the absent employee
and is
employed in the position for twenty or more working days
, the
substitute service personnel shall have regular employment status
and be accorded all rights, privileges and benefits pertaining to
the position until the regular employee returns to the position or
ceases to be employed by the county board: Provided, however, That
if a regular or substitute employee fills a vacancy that is related
to a leave of absence or the absence of an employee on workers'
compensation in any manner as provided in this section, upon
termination of the absence the employee shall be returned to his or
her original position: Provided further, That no service person may
be required to request or to take a leave of absence: And provided
further, That no service person shall be deprived of any right or
privilege of regular employment status for refusal to request or failure to take a leave of absence;
(3) To perform the service of a service employee who is
authorized to be absent from duties without loss of pay;
(4) To temporarily fill a vacancy in a permanent position
caused by severance of employment by the resignation, transfer,
retirement, permanent disability, dismissal pursuant to section
eight, article two of this chapter, or death of the regular service
employee who had been assigned to fill the position: Provided,
That within twenty working days from the commencement of the
vacancy, the board shall fill the vacancy under the procedures set
out in section eight-b of this article and section five, article
two of this chapter and the person hired to fill the vacancy shall
have and shall be accorded all rights, privileges and benefits
pertaining to the position;
(5) To fill the vacancy created by a regular employee's
suspension: Provided, That if the suspension is for more than
thirty working days, the county board shall post the position of
the suspended employee under the procedures set forth in section
eight-b of this article. If a substitute service employee is
employed to fill the suspended employee's position, the substitute
service personnel shall have regular employment status and be
accorded all rights, privileges and benefits pertaining to the
position until the termination by the county board becomes final or
the suspended employee is returned to employment. If the suspended employee is not returned to his or her job, the board shall fill
the vacancy under the procedures set out in section eight-b of this
article and section five, article two of this chapter; and
(6) To temporarily fill a vacancy in a newly created position
prior to employment of a service personnel on a regular basis under
the procedure set forth in section eight-b of this article.
(b) Substitutes shall be assigned in the following manner: A
substitute with the greatest length of service time, that is, from
the date he or she began his or her assigned duties as a substitute
in that particular category of employment, shall be given priority
in accepting the assignment throughout the period of the regular
employee's absence or until the vacancy is filled on a regular
basis under the procedures set out in section eight-b of this
article. All substitutes shall be employed on a rotating basis
according to the length of their service time until each substitute
has had an opportunity to perform similar assignments: Provided,
That if there are regular service employees employed in the same
building or working station as the absent employee and who are
employed in the same classification category of employment, the
regular employees shall be first offered the opportunity to fill
the position of the absent employee on a rotating and seniority
basis with the substitute then filling the regular employee's
position. A regular employee assigned to fill the position of an
absent employee shall be given the opportunity to hold that position throughout the absence. For the purpose of this section
only, all regularly employed school bus operators are considered to
be employed within the same building or working station.
(c) Regular school service personnel shall be returned by the
county board of education to the same position held prior to any
approved leave of absence or period of recovery from injury or
illness. The school service personnel shall retain all rights,
privileges and benefits which had accrued at the time of the
absence or accrued under any other provision of law during the
absence and shall have all rights, privileges and benefits
generally accorded school service employees at the time of return
to work.
(d) The salary of a substitute service employee shall be based
upon his or her years of employment as defined in section eight of
this article and as provided in the state minimum pay scale set
forth in section eight-a of this article and shall be in accordance
with the salary schedule of persons regularly employed in the same
position in the county in which he or she is employed.
(e) Before any substitute service employee enters upon his or
her duties, he or she shall execute with the county board a written
contract as provided in section five, article two of this chapter.
(f) To establish a uniform system of providing a fair and
equitable opportunity for substitutes to enter upon their duties
for the first time, the following method shall be used: The initial order of assigning newly employed substitutes shall be
determined by a random selection system established by the affected
substitute employees and approved by the county board. This
initial priority order shall be in effect only until the substitute
service personnel have entered upon their duties for the first
time.
(g) Substitute service employees who have worked thirty days
for a school system shall have all rights pertaining to suspension,
dismissal and contract renewal as is granted to regular service
personnel in sections six, seven, eight and eight-a, article two of
this chapter.