2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 51B - Human Resources Administration System (§§ 1461 — 1468p) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§ 1461) › § 1461 - Definitions

For all purposes, the words and phrases listed herein shall have the meaning stated below:
(1) Disciplinary action.— That sanction which is recommended by the supervisor of the employee and imposed by the appointing authority, and which shall become a part of the employee’s record. These may consist of written reprimands, job and salary suspension, or removal.
(2) Individual administrator.— Means the agency or entity comprised within the Human Resources Administration System, the personnel of which is governed by the merit principle and is administered with the advice, follow-up, and technical assistance of the Office.
(3) Agency.— Shall mean the conglomerate of functions, offices and positions which constitute the entire jurisdiction of an appointing authority, regardless of the fact that it may be called a department, municipality, public corporation, office, administration, commission, board, or otherwise.
(4) Salary adjustments.— Positive adjustments conducted on the base salary of the employee.
(5) Promotion.— Means the change of an employee from a position of one class to a position of another class with functions or a base salary of a higher level.
(6) Salary raise within the schedule.— Shall mean a change in the compensation of an employee to a higher rate within the schedule to which the class to which his/her job belongs is assigned.
(7) Salary raise due to merit.— A raise in the direct compensation that shall be granted to an employee by virtue of an evaluation of his/her performance during the twelve (12) months preceding the date of the evaluation.
(8) Raise due to competencies.— Additional compensation that shall be granted to all employees that exhibit the progressive behaviors that the organization deems to be important (i.e.: causing agent of continuous changes and innovations). For the development of these behaviors, the organization shall promote the taking of trainings directed to satisfy these. This raise shall become a part of the base salary of the employee.
(9) Raise due to abilities.— Additional compensation that shall be granted to all employees who acquire and develop, by their own initiative, abilities and knowledge that they will later on use for the benefit of the organization. This raise shall become a part of the base salary of the employee.
(10) Appointing authority.— Shall mean all heads of agency with the legal power to make appointments for jobs in the Government.
(11) Scholarship.— Means the monetary assistance granted to a person so that he/she pursues higher studies at a university or a renowned institution with the purpose of broadening his or her professional or technical education.
(12) Bonus.— A nonrecurring compensation.
(13) Certification of eligible candidates.— Shall mean the process whereby the agency certifies, in order to cover vacancies and to refer to interview, the names of the candidates in turn for a certification within the register, in descending order according to grades and contingent upon their acceptance of the conditions for employment.
(14) Selective certification.— Shall mean the process whereby the appointing authority specifies the special qualifications that the particular job to be taken will require from the candidate. For this purpose, it shall remit a clear description of the official duties of the job to the Human Resources Office, containing such special qualifications.
(15) Class or job class.— Shall mean a group of jobs of which the duties, nature of the work, authority and responsibility are so similar that they can be reasonably denominated with the same title; which demands the same minimum requirements from the employees holding the job; for which the same aptitude tests are used for the selection of employees; and for which the same compensation schedule is applied equitably under substantially equal working conditions.
(16) Job classification.— Shall mean the systematic grouping of jobs into similar classes by virtue of the duties and responsibilities involved in order to five them equal treatment in the administration of personnel.
(17) Appeals Commission.— Shall mean the Appeals Commission of the Human Resources Administration System.
(18) Competence.— Any acquired knowledge or skill which allows the employee to perform his/her functions with greater efficiency, so that he/she may contribute consistently to the achievement of the goals and objectives of his/her work unit.
(19) Edict.— Shall mean the document which shall officially state the determinations concerning the minimum requirements and the kind of examination, and all those other aspects that need to be or is convenient to disclose in order to announce the opportunity to be admitted into a job class, effective and applicable during a certain period of time.
(20) Demotion.— Means a change of an employee from a job class to a job in another class with functions and basic salary of a lower level.
(21) Differential.— Means a special and additional compensation, apart from the salary, that may be granted when there are extraordinary nonpermanent conditions or when an employee holds a position as an acting official.
(22) Director.— Shall mean the Director of the Office.
(23) Executive Director.— Shall mean the person appointed by the Chairperson of the Appeals Commission, who shall administer and direct the administrative works of the Commission under the supervision of the latter.
(24) Work team.— A group of individuals with objectives in common and committed to contribute to the achievement of the organization’s goals.
(25) Eligible.— Shall mean a person whose name appears validly in the eligible candidate register.
(26) Compensation schedule.— Compensation margin that provides for a minimum rate, a maximum rate, and various intermediate levels in order to compensate the level of work involved in a particular job class and the adequate and progressive amount and quality of work performed by the employees at a particular job class.
(27) Class specification.— Shall mean a written and descriptive statement in generic form which indicates the prevailing characteristics of the work involved in one or more positions in terms of the nature, complexity, responsibility and authority, as well as the minimum qualifications that the candidates must have to occupy the positions.
(28) Salary structure.— Shall mean the compensation structure composed by the various schedules, which shall be used in the assignment of job classes within a classification plan.
(29) Test.— Shall mean a written, oral, physical, or performance test, as well as evaluations based on experience and education, or other objective criteria used to determine whether a person has the capability to perform the functions of a job.
(30) Schedule extension.— Shall mean the extension of a salary schedule departing proportionally from the maximum rate thereof.
(31) Public function.— An inherent activity carried out in the exercise or performance of any office, job or position within the public service, whether it be compensative form or for free, or permanent or temporary form, by virtue of any kind of appointment, contract or designation for the Legislative, the Executive, or the Judicial Branch of the Government of Puerto Rico, as well as for any of its agencies, departments, subdivisions, instrumentalities, public corporations, or municipalities.
(32) Acting capacity service.— The temporary services rendered by a career employee in a position of which the classification is higher to that of the position to which he or she was officially appointed, by virtue of a written designation from the appointing authority or its authorized representative and in compliance with all other applicable legal requirements.
(33) Corrective measure.— Oral or written warning made by the supervisor to the employee when the latter incurs or relapses into an infraction to the norms of conduct established, and which does not become a part of the employee’s record.
(34) Acknowledgment memorandum.— Documents, letters or certificates whereby an employee’s positive performance is recognized.
(35) Urgent and unpostponable need.— Those essential or indispensable actions that need to be carried out urgently in order to fulfill the functions of the agency. It does not include those actions that are merely convenient or advantageous, the carrying out of which may be postponed until the regular processing is performed.
(36) Office.— Shall mean the Training and Labor Affairs Advisory and Human Resources Administration Office (OCALARH, Spanish acronym).
(37) Probation period.— Is a term during which an employee, upon being appointed to a position, is in a period of training and testing and is subject to evaluations of his/her performance of his/her duties and functions. During said period, the employee has not acquired any proprietary rights over the position.
(38) Job classification or appraisal plan.— Shall mean the system through which the different positions that integrate an organization are systematically analyzed, ordered, and appraised, without being limited to those positions established on the basis of factors, points, etc.
(39) Compensation Plans.— Shall mean the systems adopted by Individual Administrators through regulation, as provided in this chapter, whereby the compensation for career and trust services are fixed and administered pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, regulations, and the agreements reached.
(40) President of the Commission.— The Chief Executive Officer of the Appeals Commission.
(41) Prevarication.— To propose, whether knowingly or due to inexcusable ignorance, determinations which are evidently unfair.
(42) Merit principle.— Refers to the concept on which basis all public employees shall be selected, promoted, retained and treated in all matters concerning their employment based upon their capability and without discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, birth, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, social condition or origin, political or religious beliefs, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.
(43) Bona fide projects or programs.— Programs created through an administrative order or a formal proposal by the head of the agency to fulfill needs or to provide a nonrecurring service, indicating the objectives, the date of commencement and completion, the human and fiscal resources originated, and the indicators or measuring standards which shall allow for the corroboration of the achievement of such objectives.
(44) Position.— Shall mean a set of duties and responsibilities assigned or delegated by the appointing authority, which require the hiring of a person.
(45) Reclassification.— Shall mean the action of classifying or appraise a position which had been previously classified or appraised. Reclassification may be made to a higher, an equal or a lower level.
(46) Eligible candidate register.— Shall mean a list of the names of persons who have qualified to be considered for appointment to a specific class, listed in descending grade order.
(47) Readmission.— Shall mean the reintegration or the return to service, through a certification, of any regular career employee, after having separated from the service for any of the following causes:
(a) A disability which no longer exists.
(b) Layoff due to the elimination of positions.
(c) Resignation from a career position being occupied with a regular status.
(d) Severance from a confidential position without having exercised the right to reinstatement.
(48) Secretary.— The Secretary of the Commission.
(49) Active service.— Any term of service in which the employee is present and performing the functions of a position or connected to the service through the granting of any kind of leave with pay.
(50) Human resources system.— Shall mean the agencies constituted as individual administrators.
(51) Transfer.— Means the change of an employee from one position to another within the same class or to a position in another class with functions or a basic salary of a similar level.
History —Aug. 3, 2004, No. 184, § 3; Aug. 9, 2007, No. 106, § 1; Feb. 17, 2010, No. 16, § 3; July 12, 2011, No. 133, § 1; May 29, 2013, No. 22, § 5.