2015 West Virginia Code
CHAPTER 18B. HIGHER EDUCATION
ARTICLE 7. PERSONNEL GENERALLY.
§18B-7-11. Employees designated as nonclassified; limits; reports required.

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, by July 1, 2016, the percentage of personnel placed in the category of nonclassified at a higher education organization may not exceed twenty-five percent of the total number of classified and nonclassified employees of that organization as those terms are defined in section two, article nine-a of this chapter and who are eligible for membership in a state retirement system of the State of West Virginia or other retirement plan authorized by the state. An institution may not have more than ten percent of its total number of classified and nonclassified employees in positions considered by the president to be critical to the institution pursuant to said section two, article nine-a of this chapter.

A higher education organization which has more than twenty- five percent of its employees placed in the nonclassified category as defined by this subsection on July 1, 2015, shall reduce the number of nonclassified employees to no more than twenty-five percent by July 1, 2016.

(b) For the purpose of determining the ratio of nonclassified employees pursuant to this section, the following conditions apply:

(1) Organizations shall count faculty or classified employees, respectively, who retain the right to return to faculty or classified employee positions, in the employee category they are serving in at the time of reporting as required by subsections (a) and (b), section eight of this article. Such employees will be counted in their original category at such time as they exercise their return rights.

(2) Athletic coaches are excluded from calculation of the ratio. The commission and the council shall include consideration of this employee category in each review required by section nine of this article and shall monitor organizations' use of this category and include this information in the report required by (a), section eight of this article.

(c) Powers and duties of commission and council regarding nonclassified staff ratios. -

(1) The commission and council shall provide advice and technical assistance to organizations under their respective jurisdictions in collecting and interpreting data to ensure that they fulfill the requirements established by this section. Consideration of these issues shall be made part of each review required by section nine of this article and information from the review included in the report required by subsection (a), section eight of this article;

(2) The chancellors shall monitor the progress of the organizations in meeting the deadlines established in this section and shall report such in the annual human resources report card.

(d) The current annual salary of a nonclassified employee may not be reduced if his or her position is redefined as a classified position solely to meet the requirements of this section. If such a nonclassified employee is reclassified, his or her salary does not constitute evidence of inequitable compensation in comparison to other employees in the same pay grade.

(e) For the purposes of this section only the commission and council are not considered higher education organizations.