Therefore, in accordance with the above principles, the County may use a valid test to determine the qualifications of applicants for a transfer or promotion. The undersigned finds that the Union is correct in its assertion that the test was used as a tie-breaker. Supervisor Judy Olmanson testified that a review of the contractual factors for the applicants resulted in Julie Morris and Cristie Harbour being deemed equally qualified. At this point, Carol Bassett, the County's then Personnel Director, suggested a test. The test was ultimately given with the result that Morris and Harbour were equally qualified and Morris was awarded the job on the basis of seniority.
Timing is sometimes everything.
Here, the test was given after the relative qualifications had been determined and the test was used to determine which employe should get the job. Section 12.01 provides that where the other factors are relatively equal, seniority shall govern. The use of the test here was, in effect, an effort to ignore the seniority factor. Thus, the undersigned concludes that the method for which the test was employed in this case was not for an initial determination of qualifications but used as a substitute for the application of seniority and the County violated Section 12.01 by the use of the test in this case. This is not to say the County cannot use a valid test to determine qualifications to determine the relative rank of employes, but once it is determined that employes are relatively equal in the four factors, then seniority must be applied.