Senate Bill No. 195

(By Senators Plymale, Boley, Bowman, Dempsey, Edgell, Hunter, Guills, Oliverio, Unger and White)

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[Originating in the Committee on Education; reported January 16, 2004.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §18B-9-5 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the costs of incremental salary increases for higher education classified employees.

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 chancellor, which provides 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 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.