H. B. 4287


(By Delegates Leach, Morgan, Craig,

Beach, Long, Renner and Houston)


[Introduced February 3, 2004; referred to the

Committee on Education.]




A BILL to amend and reenact §18B-9-5 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to higher education; classified employee salary; and modifying provisions relating to funding the salary increment.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18B-9-5 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, 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) 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 appropriate chancellor. which provides The rule shall provide a fair and equitable basis for granting merit raises pursuant to regular evaluations based upon reasonable performance standards.
(b) 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 prohibits 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.
(c) The cost of providing any salary increase pursuant to the provisions of section two, article five, chapter five of this code, shall be borne by the commission or institution from its existing budget. The commission or institution may not increase tuition and fee charges, increase auxiliary fee charges, or receive additional general revenue funds to recover the costs of the increase. Notwithstanding any other provision of this code or law to the contrary, if insufficient funding is available to an institution or the commission to implement the provisions of said section two, funding may be derived from reducing employee positions to any level, in the discretion of the institution or commission, that is sufficient to provide adequate funds, and without regard to seniority.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.