COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4126
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss)
(Originating in the Committee on Finance)
[February 23, 2006]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-7b of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to retention of seniority for the
purpose of seeking reemployment for professional employees
whose employment with a county board of education was
terminated voluntarily.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-7b 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-4-7b. Calculation of seniority for professional personnel.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, seniority for professional personnel as defined in
section one, article one, chapter eighteen-a of this code shall be
calculated pursuant to the provisions of section seven-a of this
article as well as the following: Provided, That any recalculation
of seniority of a professional personnel employee that may be required in order to remain consistent with the provisions
contained herein shall be calculated retroactively, but shall not
be utilized for the purposes of reversing any decision that has
been made or grievance that has been filed prior to the effective
date of this section:
(a) A professional employee shall begin to accrue seniority
upon commencement of the employee's duties.
(b) An employee shall receive seniority credit for each day
the employee is professionally employed regardless of whether the
employee receives pay for that day: Provided, That no employee
shall receive seniority credit for any day the employee is
suspended without pay pursuant to section eight, article two of
this chapter: Provided, however, That an employee who is on an
approved leave of absence shall accrue seniority during the period
of time that the employee is on the approved leave of absence.
(c) Any professional employee whose employment with a county
board of education is terminated either voluntarily or through a
reduction-in-force shall, upon reemployment with the same board of
education in a regular full-time position, receive credit for all
seniority previously accumulated with the board of education at the
date the employee's employment was terminated.
(d) Any professional employee whose employment has been
terminated through reduction in force and whose name is on the
preferred recall list, shall retain all accumulated seniority for
the purpose of seeking reemployment with the county from which he
or she was terminated and nothing in this section may be construed to the contrary.
(e) Notwithstanding any provision of this section or section
seven-a of this article to the contrary, any professional employee
who voluntarily terminates his or her employment with a county
board in the absence of any currently initiated or ongoing
investigation of alleged misconduct shall retain all accumulated
seniority for a period of fifteen years from the date of
termination for the purpose of seeking reemployment with the county
board. Seniority, as provided in this subsection, shall be one of
the factors considered for fairly judging the relative
qualifications and experience of the employee as set forth in
subsection (c), section seven-a of this article.
(e) (f) Any professional employee employed for a full
employment term but in a part-time position shall receive seniority
credit for each day of employment prorated to the proportion of a
full employment day the employee is required to work: Provided,
That nothing herein allows a regular full-time employee to be
credited with less than a full day of seniority credit for each day
the employee is employed by the board: Provided, however, That
this calculation of seniority for part-time professional personnel
is prospective and does not reduce any seniority credit accumulated
by any employee prior to the effective date of this section:
Provided further, That for the purposes of this section a part-time
employee shall be defined as an employee who is employed less than
three and one-half hours per day.