“Skelly” Hearings



“Skelly” Hearings

Introduction

The skelly decision was established as the right for employees to due process before the imposition of considerable discipline. It was established in 1975 to take decisions mostly for employees' advantage.

“Skelly” refers to a case that was decided in 1975. This legal decision requires the public employer to comply with several requirements before discipline can be imposed. The language in the Skelly decision is in SPB Rule 52.3, and states that a civil service employee must “be accorded certain procedural rights before the discipline becomes reasonable minimum, these pre-removal safeguards must include notice of the proposed action, the reasons; therefore, a copy of the charges and materials upon which the action is based, and the right to respond, either orally or in writing, to the authority initially imposing d In other words, the employee is entitled to notice of what is going on and why it is happening. They then have an opportunity to respond before discipline can be imposed (emp-serv.com).

As a pre-disciplinary, procedural requirement, the actual skelly hearing is an informal, non-adversarial meeting. The reviewer must be impartial, and not personally involved. This meeting usually occurs after the employee receives the Notice of Adverse Action but before the discipline becomes effective.

In this essay, we will be discussing the skelly hearing that what is its concept and how it is applied in our agency. In addition, the procedure for skelly hearing will also be discussed to understand the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers.

Discussion

The purpose of the “Skelly” hearing is to provide the employee with an opportunity to respond to the allegations in the Notice of Adverse Action. During the hearing, the employee has some choices. They can deny the charges, admit to the charges, present mitigating evidence, and/or attempt to settle the proposed adverse action before the discipline becomes effective. Before the hearing, the employer should provide two fundamental things: the Notice of Adverse Action, which is the controlling document for the charges, and the “Skelly packet (goyetteassociates.com).”

To prepare for the “Skelly” hearing, the employee should carefully review both the Notice of Adverse Action and the Skelly law. When reviewing these documents, employees need to pay attention to the charges and the factual allegations. While reviewing, if the representative notices that any materials are missing, they should immediately ask the employer to provide the missing information and document the error.

In terms of tactics and strategy for the employee's representation at the “Skelly” hearing, the employee's preparation for the hearing is most important. If the hearing officer is fair, trustworthy and objective, they will seriously consider the employee's “Skelly” response and the representative will want to move forward in their presentation of all of the arguments at the “Skelly” hearing. If the hearing officer does not take the employee's Skelly response seriously, they may merely “rubber stamp” the discipline proposed in the Notice of Adverse Action. In this case, the employee may consider waiving the Skelly hearing (Carter et al. 2008).

Agency's Policies Regarding Administrative

In the agency, a ...