                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COVERED INSTITUTIONS; OPERATIONAL AUTHORITY; HUMAN RESOURCES; SEVERANCE POLICIES
(§ 23.1-1026)

A. Each covered institution shall adopt a severance policy for its eligible
participating covered employees that is applicable to voluntary and involuntary
separations, including reductions in workforce. The provisions of the Workforce
Transition Act (&#xA7; 2.2-3200 et seq.) shall not apply to participating
covered employees.

B. The terms and conditions of a covered institution&#8217;s severance policy
for eligible participating covered employees shall be determined by the
institution&#8217;s governing board. The covered institution and the Board of
the Virginia Retirement System shall negotiate a formula according to which cash
severance benefits may be converted to years of age or creditable service for
participating covered employees who participate in the Virginia Retirement
System.

C. Covered employees who (i) were employees of a covered institution and were
covered by the provisions of Chapter 29 (&#xA7; 2.2-2900 et seq.) of Title 2.2
prior to the effective date of the initial management agreement, (ii) would
otherwise be eligible for severance benefits under the Workforce Transition Act
(&#xA7; 2.2-3200 et seq.), and (iii) are separated by a covered institution
because of a reduction in workforce have the same preferential hiring rights
with state agencies and other executive branch institutions as other state
employees have under &#xA7; 2.2-3201. A covered institution shall recognize the
hiring preference conferred by &#xA7; 2.2-3201 on state employees who were (a)
hired by a state agency or executive branch institution before the covered
institution&#8217;s effective date of the initial management agreement and (b)
separated after that date by that state agency or executive branch institution
because of a reduction in workforce. If a covered institution has adopted a
classification system pursuant to &#xA7; 23.1-1021 that differs from the
classification system administered by the Department of Human Resource
Management, the covered institution shall classify the separated employee
according to its classification system and shall place the separated employee
appropriately. Any such separated employee who is hired by a covered institution
is a participating covered employee for purposes of this article. Classification
decisions that are made pursuant to this subsection and apply to employees
transferring between state agencies, between other executive branch institutions
and covered institutions, and between covered institutions as a result of a
reduction in workforce and with the preferential hiring rights provided in this
subsection and in &#xA7; 2.2-3201 are presumed appropriate, and a separated
employee who grieves the classification decision bears the burden of
demonstrating that the classification violates the separated employee&#8217;s
preferential hiring rights.

D. An employee&#8217;s transition from being an employee of a public institution
of higher education to being a covered employee of a covered institution on the
effective date of a covered institution&#8217;s initial management agreement
shall not, in and of itself, constitute a severance of that employee or a
reduction in workforce that would make either the covered institution&#8217;s
severance policy adopted pursuant to subsection A or the Workforce Transition
Act (&#xA7; 2.2-3200 et seq.) applicable to that employee.

HISTORY: 2005, cc. 933, 945, § 23-38.120; 2016, c. 588; 2017, c. 314.