SUNY University-Wide Human Resources Manual
Orientation - Reductions in Force (Layoff or Retrenchment)

last updated: Thursday, July 1, 2004

It is the policy of SUNY and its campuses to avoid reductions in force (retrenchment, layoffs) whenever possible. Yet, it is possible that financial exigencies, reorganizations, program curtailments, or other extraordinary circumstances could be so severe as to require such drastic measures.

If a reduction in force is required, members of affected groups serving on temporary appointments, and classified service employees serving on provisional appointments, are terminated first. Thereafter, the lease senior appointees in State/campus service are the first to be dismissed in accordance with provisions of the appropriate collective bargaining agreement, and, for affected classified service employees, the NYS Civil Service Law.

• In the classified service, seniority is defined as the date upon which an employee first received a permanent appointment in State service followed by continuous employment. Classified service employees with seniority have both retention rights and reemployment rights. Retention rights may include the right to bump less senior employees in the same department or other departments not otherwise included in the plan for a reduction in force. Reemployment rights include placement of their names on preferred lists or reemployment rosters by the Department of Civil Service.
  
  
• In the SUNY professional service, seniority for the purpose of retrenchment is defined under "Retrenchment" in the collective bargaining unit agreement between the State and the SUNY Professional Services' bargaining unit currently represented by UUP (See "Retrenchment" under references at the end of this section). In summary, after the termination of temporary appointees in affected units, employees on term appointments are trenched before employees serving on continuing or permanent appointments and, within these categories, part-time appointees are retrenched before full-time appointees.

Layoffs and Retrenchments (reductions in force) are very complex processes. In order to ensure that they are humanely administered, that both employee rights and management rights are given due consideration, and that employees directly affected receive timely notice, significant advance planning is necessary. Such planning should take into account the requirement that classified service employees facing layoff must be notified 20 days ahead of the effective date, and that for SUNY professional staff facing retrenchment, it is desirable, where circumstances permit, to provide six months notice for those holding term appointments and one year notices for those holding continuing or permanent appointments. If is important to note that a campus must submit its reduction in force plan for approval by the SUNY Office of Employees Relations before implementation. At minimum, the plan submitted for approval must include the following:

• Evidence that the campus has defined the organizational levels, programs, units, departments to be targeted based on appropriate criteria without regard to the identity of employees assigned to them;
• List(s) of employees assigned to unit(s) affected and documentation that can be used to prove such assignment(s);
• List(s) of affected employees serving on temporary or provisional appointments; and
• Seniority list(s) of affective employees by affected unit, employment category and title along with documentation to support the seniority determination.

Generally, campuses will utilize there own data files, personnel records, directories, etc. to determine which SUNY Professional Service Employees are affected by retrenchment after the organizational/programmatic decisions have been made. For classified service, they may obtain seniority rosters listing their employees by title and seniority date within it from the Department of Civil Service's data base.

Sometimes two or more employees in defined retrenchment units may have the same seniority date. In such cases some objective critieria needs to be used as tie-breakers if not all of the positions filled by employees with the same seniority date are being eliminated. Tie-breakers for classified service employees might be the date of first appointment in State service for employees who served on temporary or provisional appointments before their first permanent appointment, else, it could be the date of acceptance of appointment. For SUNY Professional Service Employees, the date of acceptance of the appointment might be used. In any event, it would be a good idea to have worked out the tie-breaker methods with the different collective negotiating agents before the need for them arises. Campuses should consult with the SUNY Office of Employee Relations for options before entering into discussions with employee representatives and again, before agreeing to any tie-breaking methods.

Reference(s):

NYS Guidelines for the Administration of Reductions in Force (classified service employees)
http://www.cs.state.ny.us/SSD-online/Manuals/RIFGuidelines/Main%20Pages/Table%20of%20Contents.htm

Retrenchment - Article 35 - Collective Bargaining Agreement with UUP (SUNY Professional Service Bargaining Unit)
http://www.goer.state.ny.us/CNA/1999to2003/uup/article_35.html
http://www.goer.state.ny.us/cna/1999to2003/uuppsnu/08art35.html (new)