Senate Bill No. 473
(By Senators Prezioso, Unger, Caldwell and Hunter)
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[Introduced February 7, 2003; referred to the Committee on Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section five, article nine, chapter eighteen-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the incremental salary increase for classified employees of higher education; and removing the cap on the number of years of service that may be used in calculating the increase .

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five, article nine, chapter eighteen-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEE SALARY SCHEDULE AND CLASSIFICATION
SYSTEM.
§18B-9-5. Classified employee salary.
(a) Commencing with the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, and each fiscal year thereafter, each classified employee with three or more years of experience shall receive an annual salary increase equal to fifty dollars times the employee's years of experience. Provided, That the annual salary increase may not exceed the amount granted for the maximum of twenty years of experience. These incremental increases are in lieu of any salary increase received pursuant to section two, article five, chapter five of this code; are in addition to any across-the-board, cost-of-living or percentage salary increases which may be granted in any fiscal year by the Legislature; and shall be paid in like manner as the annual payment to eligible state employees of the incremental salary increases based on years of service under the provisions of section two, article five, chapter five of this code.
(b) Any classified employee may receive merit increases and salary adjustments in accordance with policies established by the board of governors: Provided, That merit raises may be granted only pursuant to a rule adopted by the board of governors, and approved by the chancellor, which provides a fair and equitable basis for granting merit raises pursuant to regular evaluations based upon reasonable performance standards.
(c) The current annual salary of any classified employee may not be reduced by the provisions of this article nor by any other action inconsistent with the provisions of this article, and nothing in this article may be construed to prohibit promotion of any classified employee to a job title carrying a higher pay grade if the promotion is in accordance with the provisions of this article and the personnel classification system established by the appropriate governing board.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to

state employees.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.