How does your agency handle seniority?

[Kornblaster]

How does your agency handle seniority? Like many places Iowa is in a budget crunch and were looking at laying off a load of LEOs. As with most union shops seniority is king here. What does your department do for the tie breakers for those who have the same hire date or sworn date? Ours uses the last 4 of your SSN and the high numbers are SOL which seems pretty random and ridiculous. A few of us voiced our opinion to the union and we were told that that’s how every one else does it. Just wondering how many agencies do this.

[Dr. Peebody]

nysp goes by your entrance exam score.....

which also seems arbitrary when you're looking at 2 guys w/ 20 yrs on picking vacay based on a test they took 24yrs earlier...at least i thought so until i read YOUR post....going by ssn really is BS.

[SCSO612]

If they have the same hire date (which is RARE in my agency since there are seldom more than one person hired at a time) then the class rank would prevail. I don't think this has ever happened though.

[mikeymedic]

We don't have a union and we are staffed at the bare minimum (2).

[CruiserClass]

Seniority ties are fairly common for us because we have our own academy and people are hired in batches. Shift bid is the only time it routinely comes up, and ties are broken by substracting any suspension days first and then sick days taken if there's still a tie.

[DACP]

a coin toss for us.

[District B 13]

Last hired, first fired for us.

[ateamer]

Seniority has two purposes. One is for shift pick. Patrol picks shifts by seniority twice a year. There is a one-year limit on a shift, regardless of seniority. The other purpose, which only comes up rarely, is when two deputies put in for the same vacation days, and submit the request on the same day. If staffing won't allow for two people to be off, the senior deputy gets the nod.

Being badge #8 out of 105 at this rank, I'd really like to see the limit on consecutive shift picks be removed.

[Dinosaur32]

Can go as far back as date of application for test.

[Iowa #1603]

How does your agency handle seniority? Like many places Iowa is in a budget crunch and were looking at laying off a load of LEOs. As with most union shops seniority is king here. What does your department do for the tie breakers for those who have the same hire date or sworn date? Ours uses the last 4 of your SSN and the high numbers are SOL which seems pretty random and ridiculous. A few of us voiced our opinion to the union and we were told that that’s how every one else does it. Just wondering how many agencies do this.

In this case the "everyone else" are the 3 unions serving Iowa. AFSCME, IUP & SPOC

The IDOC has been using he last 4 SS numbers for over 30 yrs as did the Sheriff's department I used to work for. The IDOC system predates the union involvement. When I first started with the DOC I started in a class of 10 people. I have a very low last 4 digits and instantly had 9 people below me. The next time I started with two others and I was in the middle!.
That middle position cost me weekends off after 4 yrs.

It looks like there are a wide range of tie breakers being used ..........
As long as the tie breaker is used in a consistent manner, it is just as fair as any of the other criteria used as stated in the other replies.

[Jester69]

As far as I know we dont go by date of hire here. Everyone is Assigned a D number, the Sheriff right now is like D0100 something where as the newest people coming outta these classes are like D1900 or really REALLY close. That is Detention and Patrol. Reserves get RD numbers and Cadets get CD numbers.

We run our own academy so like some other people there are batches, the way D numbers go is by Date of Hire, and if that falls the same I believe its just random.

[just joe]

We don't have mass swear-ins, just one officer at a time. If we swore in multiple people on the same day, the first person who was sworn in would have seniority.

Seniority is used for shift bids, overtime and some vacation requests.

[PeteBroccolo]

No firings / releases in my Force; when there ARE budget crunches, positions will be left vacant after the incumbent dies, retires or is transferred, and training (about 2000 per year) will be slowed down, yet we are NOT unionized!

[Bushranger]

Seniority her is determined first by rank, then by payroll number. As we work two-up and the crew is two Constables, the one with the lower payroll number is the Senior Member, regardless of how competent/ incompetent they are.

[nobodyjr]

Vacation picks and layoffs (which have never happened) are the only thing seniority counts for here (officially). Tie breakers for seniority have to do with city seniority. I was non-sworn before becoming a cop, so I get picks before the rest of my academy. Or at least I'm supposed to , it's never been an issue.