2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 223 - Municipal Personnel (§§ 4551 — 4579) › § 4556 - Provisions on classification of positions and compensation—Generally

All municipal positions shall be subject to classification plans adjusted to the circumstances and needs of the service. The mayor shall establish said classification plans and the compensation with the approval of the Legislature.
A rational structure of functions shall be established which will lead to the greatest possible uniformity and will serve as a basis for the different personnel actions. Municipal functions shall be organized in such a way that logical working units may be identified. These, in turn, shall be integrated by groups of duties and responsibilities that shall constitute the basic working unit, i.e. the position.
The municipal nominating authorities shall abstain from executing service contracts with persons in their individual nature when the conditions and characteristics of the relationship that are established between the employer and employee are appropriate to the position, except as provided in this subtitle.
(a) Description of positions.— A clear and precise description shall be prepared of the duties and responsibilities of each position as well as the degree of authority and supervision attached thereto.
(b) Grouping of positions in the classification plan.— The purpose of the classification of positions is to group those positions of a similar nature into classes. All positions that are the same or substantially similar with regard to the nature and level of difficulty of the work to be performed according to the duties, complexities, and the degree of responsibility and authority, shall bear the same classification. Their incumbents may be required to have similar requirements, the same tests for selection, and the same salary. These positions shall be grouped into classes of positions.
(c) Assignment of classes to salary schedules.— The municipal nominating authorities shall determine the relative [rank] of the classes comprised in the classification plan, taking into consideration the following factors: the nature and complexity of the functions, degree of responsibility and authority exercised and received, working conditions, risks inherent to the work, and minimum requirements of the positions. The classifications shall be assigned to the salary scales contained in the compensation plan based on the rank determined for each class.
Each municipal nominating authority shall design separate classification and compensation plans for the career and confidential services. The classes included in these plans shall be structured according to a professional and occupational order, and numbered according to that class structure.
Every position shall be included in the corresponding career or confidential classification plan. No one can be nominated to a position that is not in one of these classification plans. If this happens, the nomination or personnel action shall be null.
(d) Updating of classification plan.— The mayor or the president of the assembly shall be responsible for the creation, consolidation and modification of the classes of positions comprised in the classification plan of their respective jurisdictions, in order to keep them up to date, or reassign any class of position from one compensation scale to another contained in the compensation plan, as well as to reclassify positions and provide for changes in duties, authority and responsibility as provided by regulations.
(e) Creation of transitory positions.— Transitory positions of fixed duration may be created and classified in the career service when an unpostponeable need arises for additional personnel to attend to exceptional and unforseen or emergency situations, as provided in § 4554(c) of this title.
Transitory positions shall be classified using the same classification criteria for career positions and shall be assigned to the classes contained in the classification plan.
Each class of position shall have an official title that describes its common basic elements, including the work’s nature. complexity and responsibility. A specification shall be prepared for each class included in the classification plan. The specification shall contain a clear description of the nature and complexity of the work, degree of authority and responsibility the incumbents are required to have, typical tasks, minimum educational requirements, experience, knowledge, abilities and skills that the employees in the class should have, duration of the probational period for the positions and the minimum and maximum salaries assigned to the class. The class specification shall be executed with the mayor’s signature. The President of the legislature shall deal in the same way with the legislature’s confidential employees classification plan.
The classes shall be grouped according to an occupational or professional scheme which shall be an integral part of the classification plans.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 12.006; Apr. 13, 1995, No. 36, § 38; renumbered as § 11.006 on Jan. 10, 1999, No. 30, § 3; Sept. 7, 2004, No. 258, § 28.