New legislation to be introduced by state Representative Mike Danahay (D-Sulphur) might be changing the way the state of Louisiana handles some of its employees.

The Civil Service Commission, a review board that is composed of seven members, has final say over how state employees under their heading (called "classified" employees by Danahay) are administered.

"Civil service, when it was instituted in Louisiana, was much needed," Danahay said. "As administrations came and went, they had the will to do what they chose with state employees."

However, that legislation was enacted five decades ago, and Danahay said that now is a good time to make some changes.

"It's served Louisiana well for the last five decades, but some of the civil service rules and regulations are a bit obsolete. We wanted to look at some of those things, what makes it tick, and possibly, looking at modern human resource models, how we can update it," he said.

One of those things is the elimination of "bumping." Bumping is a procedure in which, during a mandatory layoff situation, a senior employee can take the position of a less senior employee of equivalent or lower job classifications.

"We're calling for the end of bumping. There are a lot of protections that are built into federal and state law that protect employees rights, and so we feel that it's not necessary in that procedure anymore."

Danahay also mentioned a bill he plans to introduce that will affect the West Calcasieu Arena.

"I'm going to bring in some 'clean up' legislation that will change the way funding gets to the West Cal Arena. Right now it's classified as an NGO (non governmental organization), and we'd like to make it into a political organization," he said.

"That'll streamline the funding process."

The regular session of the state House of Representatives is set to begin April 27.

Southwest Daily News