The Tennessee State Employees Association has agreed to support Governor Bill Haslam’s overhaul to civil service rules. TSEA came to an agreement with the administration over the weekend.
State employees had warned that basing layoff decisions on job performance could lead to cronyism. But there are at least two changes that helped win the support of TSEA.
Executive director Robert O’Connell says the first is that the state is going to gather input from his organization on how to measure job performance.
“Once we do that, we don’t have a problem with performance being part of decisions that are being made.”
The second is that seniority will still be considered as part of layoff decisions. It just won’t be the first consideration, as it is now.
Governor Haslam called TSEA’s support “significant.” At one point, the association had walked away from discussions, saying the administration wasn’t listening to its concerns.
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