ABOLITION of POSITIONS and LAYOFFS: AN UPDATE

The Edge, the publication of NYSUT’s Tarrytown’s Regional Office, provided some reminders about the laws and regulations governing layoffs.

For Teachers and Teaching Assistants:

For teachers receiving their probationary appointments on or after August 1, 1975, layoffs are governed by Education law Section 3013 (formerly 2510) and Commissioner’s Regulation 30.13. For pre-1975 teachers, the rules are different.

Here are the procedures:

• The Board of Education (BOE) determines the position(s) to be abolished.
• The BOE determines in which Tenure Area the position is.
• The District looks at the Seniority List for that Tenure Area and determines which teacher(s) has the least seniority in that Tenure Area.
• The least senior teacher(s) in the Tenure Area is excessed by action of the BOE.
• The teacher is placed on the Preferred Eligibility List (PEL) for seven (7) years.
• The most senior teacher on the PEL (based on total seniority in the District) must be offered any new position that is similar to the former position and for which the teacher is qualified.
• The teacher(s) on the PEL must be offered regular substitute positions. The teacher need not accept the substitute position and remains on the PEL regardless of whether or not she/he accepts the substitute position.
• If the teacher accepts a position in a new district, the teacher’s name remains on the PEL in the district from which he/she was excessed.
• If the teacher is excessed from one Tenure Area (A) and has accrued seniority in another Tenure Area (B), the teacher has “bumping rights” and may displace  a teacher in Tenure Area (B) with less seniority.

Cautions:

·        Time on unpaid leaves of absences does not count toward seniority.

·        Regular fill-time substitute teaching (i.e. leave replacement positions) in the Tenure Area counts toward seniority. If the teacher has been continuously employed by the district, even if the substitute position does not immediately precede a probationary appointment, the time in the substitute position accounts toward seniority. This is different than credit toward a probationary period (so called “Jarema Credit”) which must immediately precede the probationary appointment. Also, regular full-time substitute teaching counts towards seniority even if the service is less than a full semester as required for “Jarema Credit.”

·        If a teacher voluntarily takes a reduction to a part-time position, that teacher does not receive seniority credit for that part-time work.

For Civil Service Employees:

Like instructional positions, school boards may abolish non-instructional positions for reasons of economy, consolidation, abolition of functions, or curtailment of activities.

Generally, non-instructional employee’s positions in the competitive class are abolished in inverse order of original permanent appointment in the classified civil service. This may include time in service as a non-competitive or labor class employee. Employees who are blind, veterans, or spouses of disabled veterans are given preference in layoff situations.

In a layoff situation, competitive class employees may have an opportunity to “bump” other less senior employees in the same direct line of promotion or “retreat” back to a position in which the employee last served on a permanent basis.

After a layoff has occurred, it is the superintendent’s responsibility to provide the name, title or position, date of and the reason for the layoff to the local civil service agency. Laid-off or “excessed” non-instructional are placed on a preferred list and given preference over others in reinstatement to positions within their jurisdictional class within the school district. Such excessed employees remain on the preferred list for four years.

CTA’s

Consult the CTA/TA contract, Article VII, for layoff and recall provisions.