8-30-101 - Chapter definitions. - Tennessee Statutes

8-30-101. Chapter definitions.

(a)  As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

     (1)  “Appointing authority” means an officer or agency having power to make appointments to positions in the state service;

     (2)  “Bumping” means the action of an employee of higher retention level displacing an employee of lower retention level in the same job classification;

     (3)  “Career service” means all offices and positions of trust and employment in the state service which have been placed under civil service provisions of this chapter;

     (4)  “Class” or “class of positions” means a group of positions in the state career service sufficiently alike in duties, authority and responsibilities that the same qualifications may reasonably be required for, and the same schedule of pay can be equitably applied to, all positions in the group;

     (5)  “Commission” means the state civil service commission;

     (6)  “Commissioner” means the commissioner of personnel;

     (7)  “Competitive area” means a geographic organizational area, designated by the appointing authority, within which reduction in force competition takes place. Whenever feasible, the appointing authority should make the competitive area be the county in which the employee works and each county that touches the county in which the employee works;

     (8)  “Competitive level” means the job classification title as it appears in the department's classification compensation plan;

     (9)  “Department” means the department of human resources;

     (10)  “Division” or “division of the service” means a state department or any division or branch thereof, or any agency of the state government, or branch of the state service, all of the positions of which are under the same appointing authority;

     (11)  “Divisional reemployment list” means a list of persons who have been regular employees in a particular class in a division, and who are entitled to have their names certified for appointment to a position in that class and division;

     (12)  “Eligible” means a person whose name is on a list;

     (13)  “Employment list” means a list of persons who have been found qualified, by an entrance test, for appointment to a position in a particular class;

     (14)  “Entrance test” means a test for positions in a particular class, admission to which is not limited to persons employed in the state service;

     (15)  “Executive service” means all other positions as contained in subdivision (23) which have not been placed under the classified service. “Executive service” does not include those officers, employees and positions excluded from state service in subdivision (23);

     (16)  “List” means a divisional reemployment list, a service-wide reemployment list, a promotion list, or an employment list;

     (17)  “Occupational series” means a group of job classifications with sufficiently similar duties, responsibilities, authorities and minimum qualifications so that movement from higher to lower level jobs may be accomplished without further examination or competition;

     (18)  “Promotion list” means a list of persons who have been found qualified, by a promotion test, for appointment to a position in a particular class;

     (19)  “Promotion test” means a test for positions in a particular class, admission to which is limited to employees in the career service who have held a position in another class;

     (20)  “Regular employee” means an employee who has been appointed to a position in the career service in accordance with part 3 of this chapter after completing the employee's working test period;

     (21)  “Retreating” means the action of an employee moving from one position to another position at a lower competitive level which is within the same occupational series or, in which the employee has previously held career status;

     (22)  “Service-wide reemployment list” means a list of persons who have been regular employees in a particular class, and who are entitled to have their names certified for appointment to a position in that class;

     (23)  “State service” means all officers and positions of trust or employment in the service of state government in the executive branch and all boards, commissions and agencies in state government, except those specifically excluded herein. The state service does not include officers, employees and positions in:

          (A)  The legislative branch of state government including, but not limited to, employees of the fiscal review committee, and the employees of any other committee, office or other entity created pursuant to law or resolution of either house of the general assembly for the purpose of serving either or both houses of the general assembly in executing its duties under the Constitution of Tennessee;

          (B)  The judicial branch of state government including, but not limited to, employees of the administrative director of the courts;

          (C)  The office of the secretary of state;

          (D)  The office of the state treasurer;

          (E)  The office of the comptroller of the treasury;

          (F)  The office of the attorney general and reporter;

          (G)  The offices of the district attorneys general and the district public defenders;

          (H)  The schools, institutions and entities governed by the board of regents and the University of Tennessee board of trustees, including the members of the teaching staffs and the staffs of the boards themselves; only certified professional employees of the Tennessee School for the Blind, Tennessee School for the Deaf, Alvin C. York Institute, and any other special school hereafter established;

          (I)  Any administrative boards and commissions, or any other officers or employees, attached to the entities listed in subdivisions (23)(A)-(H) for administrative purposes;

          (J)  The Tennessee higher education commission and all employees of that commission; and

          (K)  All employees of the Tennessee advisory commission on intergovernmental relations.

(b)  The commissioner shall, upon request of the heads of the respective entities enumerated above, perform any of the functions set forth for the commissioner in this chapter. Such a request shall in no way be deemed to make any of the provisions of this chapter applicable to such entities.

[Acts 1939, ch. 221, § 2; C. Supp. 1950, § 1034.23 (Williams, § 423.24b); Acts 1955, ch. 311, §§ 1, 2; 1957, ch. 222, § 1; impl. am. Acts 1959, ch. 9, § 4; impl. am. Acts 1961, ch. 94, §§ 1, 2, 4; impl. am. Acts 1974, ch. 481, §§ 4, 6; impl. am. Acts 1975, ch. 248, § 1; modified; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 8-3001; Acts 1983, ch. 37, §§ 1, 2; 1986, ch. 869, §§ 4, 19-21, 24; 1987, ch. 69, § 1; 1989, ch. 208, § 1; 1991, ch. 401, § 1; 1993, ch. 66, § 6; 1995, ch. 305, § 50; 2003, ch. 355, § 22.]