Torrance Municipal Code Art. 25 Lay-Offs

a) Prerequisite to Lay-off. No permanent employee shall be laid off or reduced until all temporary employees, recurrent employees and probationers holding positions in the same class in the same department are released or reduced.

b) Order of Lay-off. In case there are two (2) or more permanent employees in the class from which lay-off or reduction is to be made, such employees shall be laid off or reduced according to the average of the last four (4) efficiency ratings on file with the Civil Service Commission, as follows:

Employees within each category shall be laid off in inverse order of seniority in the classified service.

In case of a tie affecting two (2) or more employees in the same category as set forth in Section 14.25.1 who have the same seniority, the employee with the lowest average efficiency rating shall be laid off first. If a tie still exists and said persons were appointed from the same eligible list to the position from which the lay-off is to be made, the person whose name was the lower on said eligible list shall be laid off first, but if the appointments were not made from the same eligible list, the person who has the least seniority in the class from which lay-off or reduction is made shall be laid off first. If a tie exists in seniority in the position, then that person who was appointed from the later eligible list shall be laid off first.

The appointing authority may make reductions in class and thereby cause lay-offs only in the lower classifications.

a) Re-employment List: The names of persons laid off or reduced in accordance with these Rules shall be entered upon a list in the inverse of the order specified in Section 14.25.1b, except that persons whose record of employment has not been satisfactory shall be omitted from the re-employment list. Lists from different departments or at different times for the same class of position shall be combined into a single list. Such list shall be used by every appointing authority when a vacancy arises in the same or lower class of position for which qualified before certification is made from an eligible list. When a vacancy occurs, the appointing authority shall appoint the person highest on the re-employment list who is available and who was laid off from a position in that department. If no one was laid off from the department in which the appointment is to be made, then the appointing authority shall appoint any one (1) of such persons; if only one (1), the appointing authority shall appoint that one (1).

b) Name Removal: Names of persons laid off or reduced in lieu of lay-offs shall be carried on a re-employment list for two (2) years, except that the names of persons appointed to permanent positions of the same level as that from which laid off shall, upon such appointment, be removed from the list.

Persons reduced or re-employed in a lower class or re-employed on a temporary basis shall be retained on the list for the higher position for two (2) years.

c) Restoration to Re-employment List: The name of any person who has been appointed to a permanent position from a re-employment list and who is separated from the service without delinquency or fault on his or her part, may, at the discretion of the Civil Service Commission, be restored to the re-employment list. This restoration, however, shall not have the effect of extending the time the employee may be carried on the re-employment list beyond the two (2) years from date of original separation.

The provisions of this rule may be amended by a memorandum of understanding in which case this rule shall not apply to such employees so covered during the life of the memorandum of understanding.