Matter of Criscolo v Vagianelis

The Supreme Court of New York County granted petitioners’ appeal to review a determination of respondent Department of Civil Service reclassifying certain civil service job titles.

 Petitioners challenged the classification standards issued in October 2006 by respondents revising their job titles within the Department of Corrections. This reclassification would add a duty to conduct tier III inmate disciplinary hearings to the following job titles: education supervisor, plant superintendent, and assistant industrial superintendent. Petitioners contended that this reclassification was inappropriate and conflicted with the duties of their civil service titles. Supreme Court rejected these contentions and dismissed the petition resulting in this appeal by petitioners.

 The Division argued that the job titles were in need of updating and that the standardized nature of the tier III hearings combined with procedural safeguards that are in place would allow for hearings to be conducted by non-attorneys. The proposed new standards set forth many changes and among them were requiring the employees to occasionally conduct tier III hearings.

 The Division may not utilize reclassification as a means of validating out-of-title work and this appears to be the case. The Governor’s Office of Employee Relations issued determinations in August 2006 ruling that the duties of conducting tier III disciplinary hearings constituted out-of-title work. The Division was attempting to indirectly do what it is prohibited from doing directly.

 Accordingly, the Supreme Court ordered that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.