How to Plead in Civil Service Appeals

1. Layoff:
a. Where money is an issue, consider whether the reluctance to raise new revenue through taxation is an issue. If politicians are aggressively cutting taxes, then they should be confronted when they plead poverty when it comes to paying employees. I WAS LAID OFF FOR AN ALLEGED LACK OF MONEY, BUT THE EMPLOYER HAS CALCULATED TO DEPLETE THE PUBLIC TREASURY, WITHOUT REGARD TO OBLIGATIONS UNDER CIVIL SERVICE LAW.
b. Layoff selection: I WAS SELECTED FOR LAYOFF WHEN OTHER EMPLOYEES IN THE SAME JOB TITLE WERE KEPT EMPLOYED. When layoff selection is the issue, that is someone else, but not me, should be laid off, allege violations of Section 67, which requires posting of a seniority roster. Employees are entitled to certain information before they are laid off and seniority rosters are an important part of that information.
c. Defense for employers: If the employee claims priority over less senior employees who are currently serving in provisional promotions, see Andrews v. Mass. Dept. of Revenue.
d. Reorganizations: THE EMPLOYERS HAS REORGANIZED THE WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT SPECIFICALLY TO ELIMATE MY POSITION. If the reorganization is a pretext to eliminate an employee, Cambridge Hous. Auth. v. Civil Serv. Comm’n, 7 Mass. App. Ct. 586, 389 N.E.2d 432 (1979). In the case of a genuine reorganization positions can be abolished, Camerlengo v. Civil Serv. Comm’n, 382 Mass. 689, 414 N.E.2d 350 (1981) (steam fitter who worked mainly at a particular public housing project was no longer needed after that property was sold). However, baring the pretext argument, the employer should win where the reorganization was a different plan to assign work, even giving the laid off employees work to a higher paid employees. Maybe they are higher paid because they can do the work of several lower paid employees.