2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 51B - Human Resources Administration System (§§ 1461 — 1468p) › Subchapter IV - Merit Principle (§§ 1462 — 1462h) › § 1462e - Retention

(1) Career employees with regular status shall have a secure job as long as they satisfy productivity, efficiency, habit, attitude, order and discipline standards that should prevail in the public service. Such standards shall be established on the basis of the functions of the jobs, the duties and the obligations, among other factors, as provided for further in this chapter, as well as such others that in agreement with the operational function of each agency, are necessary for the rendering of services.
(2) Agencies may determine, and shall be under the obligation to establish, the system to evaluate performance, productivity, achievements and efficient compliance with the standards established for employees which better suit their operational needs. These evaluation systems shall be revised and approved by the appointing authority of each agency.
(3) When the behavior of an employee does not conform to the norms and requirements established, each agency must take the necessary and appropriate corrective measures or disciplinary actions. Among others, they may consider oral warnings, written reprimands, job and salary suspension, and removal.
(4) The appointing authority may only suspend from job and salary or remove any career employee for just cause, after having given written notice of the bringing of charges and an admonishment of his/her right to request a hearing before action is taken.
(5) When the behavior attributed to an employee constitutes a real or potential hazard to the health, life, property or morals of the agency employees or the general citizenry, appointing authorities may make summary suspensions. In such cases, they shall be under the obligation to hold an informal hearing within ten (10) days after the suspension has taken place.
(6) Agencies may negotiate with their union representatives in terms of the procedures to be used when imposing disciplinary measures. Such procedures shall contain the mechanisms needed to guarantee a due process of law and to protect employees from arbitrary dismissals and severances.
(7) The duties listed below shall constitute the essential minimum obligations required from all employees, for which disciplinary measures shall be taken when there is failure to comply:
(a) Attend the workplace regularly and punctually and comply with the working hours established.
(b) Observe the norms of correct, courteous and respectful behavior in their relations with their supervisors, co-workers and citizens.
(c) Perform efficiently and diligently the tasks and functions assigned to their job as well as others compatible therewith as they are assigned.
(d) Obey such orders and instructions from their supervisors that are compatible with the authority delegated to the latter and with the functions, activities and objectives of the agency where they work.
(e) Maintain the confidentiality of matters related to their work, unless they are formally required or allowed by a competent authority to disclose the same.
(f) Perform tasks outside their working hours when the needs of service so demands, provided they have been notified reasonably in advance.
(g) Ward, preserve and safeguard, including but not limited to, all public documents, property and interests.
(h) Comply with the provisions of this chapter and the rules and orders issued hereunder.
(i) Comply with the ethical and moral conduct norms established in the Government Ethics Act, §§ 1801 et seq. of this title, and its regulations.
(8) In agreement with the stated above, it is hereby provided that employees may not carry out, among other and similar actions, the following:
(a) Accept gifts, donations or any other reward for the work performed as public employees, except for those authorized by law.
(b) Use their official position for political partisan purposes or for other ends which are not compatible with public service.
(c) Perform functions or tasks that create a conflict of interest with their obligations as public employees.
(d) Carry out or omit any action as prohibited under the Government Ethics Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, §§ 1801 et seq. of this title.
(e) Show a conduct which is inappropriate or harmful to the [good] name of the agency or the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(f) Be guilty of prevarication, bribery, or immoral conduct.
(g) Carry out any act which impedes the application of this chapter and the rules adopted hereunder; do or accept willingly any false declaration, certification or report in connection with any matter covered under the law.
(h) Give, pay, offer, solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, money, services, or any other valuable in exchange for an eligible status, appointment, promotion or other personnel action.
(i) Be guilty of conduct related to crimes against the public treasury or the public faith and function, or which involve public funds or property.
(9) Layoffs may be decreed in the service, without it constituting a disciplinary action or a removal, under the following circumstances:
(a) Due to the elimination of jobs for a lack of work or funds. In these cases, layoffs shall be decreed within the groups of employees whose jobs have the same classification title and considering the status of each employee within the group, as well as their productivity, habits and attitudes as reflected in their evaluations, and their seniority in terms of service. In order to determine seniority, all services rendered in jobs in the agencies comprised within the System shall be considered. The appointing authority of each agency shall give all employees to be laid off, written notice not less than thirty (30) days in advance of the date on which the layoff is to take place. No employee layoff shall be effective unless the notice requirement is met. Each agency shall establish a written procedure to the effect of decreeing layoffs in case these are necessary, and the same shall be disclosed or available for the knowledge of any employees interested.
Before decreeing layoffs due to the elimination of jobs for a lack of work or funds, all other resources available shall be exhausted in order to prevent such layoffs by taking actions such as:
(A) Placement of personnel in jobs of an equal or similar classification, in departments, offices or programs in which there is a need for personnel.
(B) Retraining of employees in order to place them in other job, when this can be done in reasonable advance of the deadline for decreeing such layoffs.
(C) Use of the vacation leave accrued.
(D) Leave without pay until the budgetary crisis lapses, when the agency has made the decision based on a temporary budgetary insufficiency that does not require the permanent elimination of the job. In such cases, the preferential order previously established shall be observed within the method to decree layoffs.
(E) Reduction of working hours.
(F) Demotion of employees as the last recourse to prevent layoffs.
(b) When it is determined that employees are physically and/or mentally disabled to perform the essential functions of their job, with or without reasonable accommodations. The appointing authority may require employees to submit to medical tests when there is evidence of problems in the performance of tasks or security problems, or when so required under other federal laws, to determine the aptitude to perform the functions of a job and when voluntary medical tests are required as a part of health programs. Refusal by employees to submit to the medical test thus required may serve as grounds to presume that they are disabled for the performance of the essential functions of their job. Employees shall be notified of this action, being admonished of their right to request an administrative hearing.
(c) When employees are disabled due to a work-related accident and under medical treatment with the State Insurance Fund for a term greater than twelve (12) months as of the date of the accident, pursuant to § 7 of Title 11, part of the “Work-Related Accident Compensation Act”. Employees shall be notified of this action, being [notified] as to their right to request an administrative hearing.
(10) A career employee may be severed from his or her job during or at the end of his/her probation period, when it is determined that his/her progress and adaptability to the norms in effect have not been satisfactory, after having been duly oriented and trained. If due to his/her performance and not because of habits or attitudes an employee were to be severed during the probation period and immediately before his or her appointment, he or she has served satisfactorily as a regular employee in another job, he/she shall be entitled to be reinstated into a job equal or similar to that which he or she held with a regular status. If severance from service was due to habits or attitudes of the employee, severance may proceed through the removal procedure established in the agency.
(11) Any transitory employee may be severed from service before the term of duration of his/her appointment lapses, due to just cause and pursuant to the due procedure of law.
(12) Severance from service shall be made, pursuant to § 556 of this title, of any employee convicted of any felony or crime which implies moral turpitude, or infraction of his/her official duties. Provided, That in the cases where the convicted employee is given the benefit of serving part or all of his/her sentence free in the community, the provisions of §§ 556a—556e of this title, shall operate, as well as the procedure established in § 1462g of this title.
(13) Any career employee may resign from his/her job at will through written notice given to the appointing authority of the agency. This notice shall be given with not less than ten (10) consecutive days before his/her last working day; however, the authority may, at its discretion, accept the resignation of an employee when presented within a shorter term. The appointing authority shall, within the term in which such resignation has been submitted, give written notice to the employee of whether it accepts or refuses the same for there being grounds which warrant an investigation of the conduct of the employee. In the case of refusal, the appointing authority shall conduct an investigation within the shortest term possible to determine whether it should accept the resignation or bring charges.
History —Aug. 3, 2004, No. 184, § 6.6.