Louisiana State Civil Service Veterans Preference

Louisiana adds 5 or 10 points to a candidate's score on the civil service eligible list. The points are real, and two restrictions in the Department of State Civil Service's own procedure decide whether a given applicant gets them. The first restriction is the kind of hiring action. Veterans preference points are added in new hiring situations only, meaning probational appointments and job appointments, for all jobs. They are not added to promotions inside the classified service. A veteran already working for the state who is competing for a higher classification is not getting these points, which is the opposite of what several states do and the opposite of what most applicants assume. The second is documentation recency. Five points needs a DD-214. Ten points needs a copy of the DD-214 plus a letter from the Veterans Administration documenting a service-connected disability, and that letter must be dated within the last six months of the application. A rating that has not changed in a decade still needs a letter pulled in the last six months. Download a fresh benefit summary letter from VA.gov before you apply rather than reusing the one in your files. Who gets which. Five points go to an honorably discharged veteran who served during a congressionally declared wartime period, in a peacetime campaign or expedition with an authorized campaign badge, or for 90 days or more after September 11, 2001 other than for training. Ten points go to an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected VA disability rating. The 10-point preference also reaches family members, which is easy to miss: the spouse of a disabled veteran who is unable to work, the unremarried surviving spouse of a deceased veteran with wartime service, the unremarried surviving parent of a servicemember killed on active duty or of a veteran with a total permanent disability, and a divorced or separated parent in the same circumstances. A family member claiming points must submit Form C.S. 295 with a copy of the DD-214, any VA statement of disability, a copy of the marriage certificate, and a death certificate or birth certificate as applicable. How the mechanics work in practice. Candidates on the eligible list are filtered on their answer to the agency-wide question about veterans preference eligibility, and if claimed the 5 or 10 points are added to the score. The appointing authority verifies the points only on the candidate actually hired. So claiming on the application is what puts you in the pool, and the proof is checked at the end. Answer the question; an unclaimed preference is simply not applied. Civil Service states plainly that veterans preference cannot be verified without a DD-214. Two further privileges sit alongside the points. A veteran separated with 90 days or more of active duty other than training and an honorable discharge within the past 12 months may be appointed to a civil service vacancy without an examination. And veterans meeting length-of-service and efficiency rating requirements have a retention privilege during layoffs. Reach State Civil Service at (225) 342-8274 or (866) 783-5462. Fire and police civil service in municipalities runs on a different statute and is covered in its own entry. State and public employees who are Guard or Reserve members get 15 days of paid leave per calendar year for orders to duty or training, restored to their position without loss of pay, time, annual leave, or efficiency rating. R.S. 42:401 entitles a state employee honorably discharged after military service to reemployment in the same or a similar position as to seniority, status, and pay.