Layoffs may happen due to a shortage of work or funds, the elimination of a position, or because of changes in your department’s organizational structure.

Employees in the classified service (the County’s civil service system) who successfully pass their probationary period and achieve permanent status, earn rights to their job classification.

In the event of a “Layoff”, the Department of Human Resources will calculate a retention score for those employees in the classification affected by a layoff.  A retention score is the sum of an employee’s creditable seniority points (time served in the classification) and creditable performance evaluation points (average of performance evaluation score) in a job classification.  Employees are laid off in retention score order, from lowest to highest.

If an employee occupies an exempt classification, they are exempt from civil service are not required to serve a probationary period.  Employees in the exempt service do not earn rights to their exempt positions, but keep any rights they have earned in the classified service.

When you are affected by layoff and are not able exercise your classified service rights, you are encouraged to log into our on-line Recruitment Management System and “apply without a job”.  This will add your unique qualifications to our resume bank and will assist us in finding you other employment opportunities.

Employees with classified service rights
Employees with classified service rights will be allowed to exercise those rights. A retention score will be calculated, which is the sum of an employee’s creditable seniority points and creditable performance evaluation points in a job.

Employees without classified service rights
Employees without rights will receive employment assistance through the County’s Pipeline Assistance process.  This assistance will entail: career counseling, review of county vacancies, facilitation of the recruitment process by adding employees’ name to any active recruitments for which they qualify or express interest, and provision of a letter of introduction to the hiring department requesting that the concerned employee be granted an interview.

The Human Resources Department will advise you via letter of your new assignment after retention and bumping rights have been determined.  Employees without classified service rights will receive a letter from the Human Resources Department notifying them of Pipeline Assistance.

Your new salary will be dependent on your new classification and your current bi-weekly rate of pay. If assigned to a new department within your current classification, there will be no change in your rate of pay.  If your new classification is a demotion, the demotion policy will be applied by placing the employee on the closest bi-weekly pay rate NOT to exceed the salary the employee was receiving in the higher classification or the maximum of the pay range.