San Francisco City Workers Seek To Protect Seniority Perk
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - San Francisco City workers packed the Civil Service Commission meeting Monday, in demonstration against a proposal to eliminate "bumping rights" and seniority.
Ultimately, it appeared the idea would be headed for the back burner for the time being.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
The idea gained steam with former Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration, and was embraced by San Francisco's Human Resources Department, with director Micki Callahan going so far as to suggest that the practice disrupted government when a laid-off worker bumped a lower-level employee while knowing little about the new job.
City workers disputed that argument during Monday's meeting, arguing that ending the practice of "bumping" destroyed the entire principal of merit-based public service.
"The proposal before you today is a stab in the public employees' backs," declared one man.
"You do not understand how disruptive putting this on the agenda has been," suggested another man.
"It would be great if this thing just went away," summed up a third speaker.
Callahan conceded that the timing wasn't quite right to consider the proposal, and the commission indicated it planned to, at least temporarily, disregard it and look for a way to make bumping work more effectively.
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