Tennessee Gov. Bill HaslamNASHVILLE – The Tennessee State Employees Association today said Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration refuses to compromise on the “most harmful provisions” of a Haslam bill the group says damages workers’ civil service protections.
“Unfortunately, the governor’s people were unwilling to remove or compromise on the provisions most harmful to state employees and to the people of Tennessee, leaving TSEA no choice but to announce our strongest opposition to the bill,” said TSEA Executive Director Robert O’Connell.
The Republican governor’s bill eliminates rules that give priority to senior employees during layoffs, allowing them to move into positions occupied by less senior employees. Haslam has denounced the “bump and retreat” rules as absurd.
The TSEA said it would effectively let the admininistration “get rid of employees they don’t like under the rules of eliminating a ‘position.'”
Other provisions eliminate scoring job applicants on their experience, training, education, and test results. The TSEA says it also moves to a “pass-fail” system where administrators can hire any applicant who only possesses what the employees’ group says is “the bare minimum qualifications for the job.”