§ 74-840-4.3. Audit of classified service positions.

A.  The Office of Management and Enterprise Services shall conduct audits of positions in the classified service to determine the proper job family to which a position is allocated, and may delegate the auditing function to an agency pursuant to subsection E of Section 840-1.15 of this title.  Appointing authorities have control of positions within their agency and have the authority to organize their agencies, to create positions, to abolish positions and to prescribe or change the duties and responsibilities assigned to any position or employee at any time and shall determine the level within a job family at which duties and responsibilities are assigned.  The Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services shall adopt rules establishing policies and procedures for appointing authorities to follow when determining the job family level at which duties and responsibilities are assigned within their agencies.  Such rules shall include a process for review by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services of internal classification grievances of job family level assignments which cannot be resolved at the agency level.  Individual audits of positions shall be conducted at the request of the appointing authority based on information provided by the agency.  An incumbent employee will be given an opportunity to respond; however, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services will rely on the appointing authority for an official listing of the duties and responsibilities of the position.

B.  The appointing authority has the responsibility to ensure that employees are properly classified and that the work performed conforms to the appropriate job family descriptor describing the position.  Employees shall be classified in accordance with the work they are assigned on a regular and consistent basis as an integral part of their normal work assignment and job family descriptor.  An employee has the right and responsibility to file a classification grievance, as provided by law and rule, when duties performed on a regular and consistent basis do not conform to the job family descriptor.  An employee is entitled to the compensation assigned to the job family level for which duties were performed on a regular and consistent basis.  This provision does not entitle the employee to a higher job family level.  Agency classification and reclassification decisions shall not be subject to appeal to the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission.  However, the involuntary removal of a permanent employee in permanent status in a job family level to a lower level in the same job family or to another job family level assigned a lower pay band shall be considered a demotion.  Such action may be appealed by the employee to the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission.  The Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services shall adopt rules pursuant to subsection A of this section which shall include a process for review by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services of internal classification grievances of job family level assignments which cannot be resolved at the agency level.

C.  Job family descriptors shall be used for the purpose of distinguishing one job family from another as clearly and definitively as possible in order that positions may be properly allocated and employees may be properly classified in accordance with this section.  Job family descriptors shall be applied in accordance with the following:

1.  The position description questionnaire and job family descriptors shall be interpreted and applied as a composite picture of the job requirements.  An employee is not required to perform all of the work operations described in a job family descriptor in order to be eligible for classification thereunder.  An employee is not eligible or entitled to classification by reason of performing isolated or singular duties incidental to the job but which are described in another job family descriptor.  Employees are entitled to the job family level they are currently assigned.

2.  An employee normally performs some of the work of higher-rated jobs and some of the work of lower-rated jobs when required.  The normal duties of an employee may include assistance to others.

3.  An employee is required to perform the work operations and duties described or appraised as being covered by a job family descriptor pursuant to that degree or amount of guidance or instruction which is considered regular and consistent in order to qualify for the classification.

Added by Laws 1982, c. 147, § 9, emerg. eff. April 12, 1982.  Renumbered from § 7.9 of Title 62 by Laws 1982, c. 338, § 60, eff. July 1, 1982.  Amended by Laws 1983, c. 274, § 3, operative July 1, 1983; Laws 1986, c. 84, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 1986; Laws 1994, c. 242, § 24.  Renumbered from § 840.22 of this title by Laws 1994, c. 242, § 54.  Amended by Laws 1995, c. 310, § 13, emerg. eff. June 5, 1995; Laws 1997, c. 406, § 3, eff. July 1, 1997; Laws 1999, c. 410, § 10, eff. Nov. 1, 1999; Laws 2000, c. 336, § 6, eff. July 1, 2000; Laws 2012, c. 304, § 901.