ARTICLE 14
Merit Assignment Program
SECTION 1. PURPOSE AND COVERAGE
A. This article establishes the Merit Assignment Program (MAP) for the National Weather Service (NWS). The MAP is applicable to bargaining unit positions only in the competitive service area unless otherwise stated. All actions covered by this Article are governed by the procedures of the Department of Commerce Merit Assignment Program Plan of March 1989 as revised June 1996.
B. This article applies to selection for competitive service bargaining unit positions resulting in the following types of actions:
1. promotion;
2. transfer or reinstatement to a higher graded position
3. reassignment or change to a lower-graded position with known greater promotion potential than the position last held;
4. temporary promotion for more than 120 days or assignment to a detail of more than 120 days to a higher grade position or to a position with known promotion potential within the bargaining unit. All prior service in a temporary promotion or detail to higher grade position during the twelve(12) month period immediately preceding the current action is counted toward the 120 day limitation; and
5. training required for promotion to a bargaining unit position unless the training is available to all qualified bargaining unit employees.
SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS
A. Applicants: Bargaining unit employees who express interest through proper written application in accordance with the requirements of the vacancy or training announcement within the bargaining unit.
B. Area of Consideration: The minimum area in which a search is made for eligible candidates.
C. Career Ladder Positions: Previously identified positions in which most bargaining unit employees in the same line of work are given equal opportunity to demonstrate the full performance or journeyman level.
D. Career Promotion: The promotion of an employee without current competition.
E. Competitive Procedure: The process of evaluating bargaining unit applicants by applying job-related merit factors to determine the best qualified, applicants.
F. Consideration: The observation, examination and/or review and decision made by proper authority in the determination of an applicant s knowledge, skills, and abilities, in conjunction with other regulatory or statutory requirements, to perform in the advertised position. It is a continuous process culminating in final consideration by the selecting official. An applicant, upon failing to meet requirements at one step in the process, would not progress and receive further consideration.
G. Eligible Applicants: Those applicants who meet all the minimum eligibility and qualification requirements, including time in grade at the time the vacancy announcement closes, or in the case of "open" announcements at the time application is made.
1. Qualified. The rating given to an applicant who meets all of the established qualification requirements for a particular position, including selective placement factors.
2. Best Qualified. The rating given to qualified candidates determined by a Rating board to be the most capable of successfully performing all of the specific duties of the vacancy when compared to other eligible applicants.
H. Merit Assignment Program (Selection) Certificate: The form used for submitting the names of qualified candidates to the selecting official for consideration.
I. Merit Program Vacancy Announcement: A form used to publicize current or anticipated vacancies.
J. Non-status Applicants: Applicants who respond to bargaining unit vacancy announcements who do not appear to have a current notice of eligibility from the Office of Personnel Management and do not appear to be eligible for transfer or reinstatement.
K. Promotion: The change of an employee to a higher grade position when both the old and the new positions are under the general schedule, or under the same wage schedule, or to a position with a higher rate of pay when both the old and new positions are under the same type ungraded wage schedule or in different pay-method categories.
L. Position with Known Promotion Potential: A bargaining unit position which is filled at a grade lower than the officially classified ultimate grade level for that position. Career promotions may subsequently be made from these lower grade positions.
M. Reassignment: The change of an employee from one position to another without promotion or demotion within the Department of Commerce.
N. Selective Placement Factors: Knowledge, skills, or abilities essential for satisfactory performance on the job and which represent part of the basic qualifications for a position.
0. Selecting Official: A NWS official with authority to select an applicant for assignment to a position, subject to final regulatory approval of the appropriate Personnel Officer.
P. Supervisory Appraisal: Those evaluations of an applicant by current and/or former supervisors that will be considered by the selecting official in the selection process.
SECTION 3. RESPONSIBILITIES
Bargaining Unit employees are responsible for:
A. Being knowledgeable of the provisions of this Article and complying with its requirements;
B. Insuring that their application documents are current with respect to qualifications, special training, and educational achievements which may not be a routine matter of record;
C. Demonstrating competence and readiness for advancement by effective performance in current positions; and
D. Advising their immediate supervisor in writing, prior to any temporary absences, (other than those involving the Inter-governmental Personnel Act, military duty or assignment with statutory reemployment rights) of the types of vacancies in the bargaining unit for which they wish to be considered during their absence.
SECTION 4. EXCEPTIONS
This article does not apply by government-wide regulation in the following instances:
A. Appointments from OPM registers provided that requests for certificates contain selective factors, if any, which would be used in advertising.
B. Selection for a position with known promotion potential as a result of reduction-in-force.
C. Repromotion of employees demoted without cause or not as a result of their personal request.
D. Promotion After Failure to Receive Proper Consideration: If an employee fails to receive proper consideration in a promotion action and the erroneous promotion is allowed to stand, the employee will be given priority consideration for the next appropriate vacancy in competition with any other employees with similar entitlement to this special consideration as an exception to the regular competitive procedures in this article. The selecting official is not required to select from among these employees. An employee is entitled to only one consideration under this provision for each instance of lost consideration. For purposes of meeting the requirement of this section, an employee is deemed to be "Reconsidered" when his/her name is referred to a selecting official. This does not restrict the employee from being considered for positions in other areas of consideration for reassignment, other noncompetitive, or competitive actions.
E. Career Promotions. Career promotions may be made in the situations noted below:
1. Reclassification: An employee whose position is reconstituted in a higher grade because of the accretion of additional duties and responsibilities may be promoted noncompetitively. To be eligible for a career promotion, an employee must continue to perform the same basic function, with the duties of the former position absorbed in the new one.
2. Result of New Classification Standard or Correction of Error: Employees in positions upgraded without significant changes in duties and responsibilities on the basis of either the application of a new classification standard issued by the Office of Personnel Management or the correction of a previous classification error, who meet all requirements for the higher level position, may be promoted or be removed from the position by appropriate personnel action.
3. Career Promotion of an Employee in a Position with Known Promotion Potential.
4. Career Promotions Under Training Agreements: An employee who satisfactorily completes training under an Office of Personnel Management-approved training agreement which specifically provides for promotion, if the employee was chosen for the training opportunity through competitive procedures.
F. Details or Temporary Promotion to a Higher Grade for 120 Days or Less. A series of such assignments each of which is less than 120 days, but cumulatively do not exceed 120 days in the preceding 12 months, may be made.
G. Lateral assignments to bargaining unit positions with no greater known promotion potential may be made without regard to this article. Management has no obligation to reassign employees for hardship reasons.
H. Handicapped employees normally appointed under excepted authority to schedule A may be considered under this plan. A separate certificate of qualified applicants will be prepared. When such persons are selected and are to remain in the excepted service their positions will be removed from the competitive service while they occupy them.
I. Upward Mobility Program positions for which selections are made and filled through the merit process.
J. The filling of vacancies subject to the Priority Placement Program shall take precedence over any procedures of the Merit Assignment Program.
SECTION 5. CERTIFICATION
A.
1. A maximum of ten names to be considered for promotion may be referred for a vacancy. One additional name may be added for each additional vacancy to be filled from the same certificate.
2. Where a rating and ranking process does not produce a minimum of three best qualified applicants, the selecting official has the option of requesting inclusion of the "qualified" applicants within the maximum of ten indicated above.
3. When it has been advertised that a vacancy "may be filled at a lower level" or will be given multi-grade-level consideration, applicants for each level will be certified separately.
4. Additional positions may be filled from the selection certificate if the additional vacancies are the same as the one advertised, and are in the same commuting area.
B. NWSEO will be offered the opportunity to have a fully participating representative on each Rating board. The NWSEO President shall provide to each Financial Management Center (FMC) Director a list of at least three NWSEO members from which one will be selected to serve on an individual Rating board. These NWSEO members will normally be from within the commuting area where the board, is convening.
C. Additional Sources of Recruitment: The selecting official is not required to fill a vacancy by selection of one of the applicants listed on the selection certificate. Additional recruitment efforts may be requested or other recruitment action outside of MAP considerations may be taken.
D. Decision: The selecting official’s decision to select a particular applicant will be indicated on the selection certificate.
SECTION 6. INFORMATION TO EMPLOYEES
A. The appropriate personnel officer will make available to all applicants the outcome of each vacancy announcement. If no Rating board was utilized, within thirty (30) days of notification of the outcome, the applicants whose names appeared on the Merit Assignment Program Certificate may request a counseling discussion with the selecting official to answer questions about his/her consideration.
B. Upon specific request to the appropriate personnel officer, any employee considered for a vacancy will be furnished the name of the individual selected and the following information about himself/herself:
1. All information pertaining to the inquiring employee concerning the particular action, including the rating plan and performance appraisals;
2. Whether the employee was found to be qualified on the basis of the minimum standards;
3. Whether the employee's name was on the selection certificate used to fill the position;
4. If a Rating board was utilized, the "sanitized" rating panel for the vacancy which has had the information which could be used to identify other candidates removed;
5. In what areas, if any, the employee may improve in order to increase the chances of future selection for vacancies; and,
6. Any additional information which may be provided in a grievance situation will be released in such form as to protect the privacy of any individual.
SECTION 7. Each bargaining unit employee below the journeyman level in a career ladder position shall be promoted to the next higher grade on the pay period closest to his/her anniversary date when:
A. he/she meets the qualification requirements;
B. she/he has been given grade building opportunities, and has successfully demonstrated the ability to complete them;
C. there is enough grade-determining work;
D. the time-in-grade requirement has been met;
E. the employee's performance meets or exceeds expectations; and
F. no administrative restriction on promotions has been imposed by the NWS or an Authority above the NWS level.
When these conditions have been met, the employee shall be promoted.
SECTION 8. This article covers bargaining unit positions and employees only. Positions in the NWS not covered by this Agreement are excluded and not subject to any provisions of this Agreement.
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