Michigan Removal Protection for a Veteran in Public Employment

Section 35.402 is the provision that makes Michigan's veterans preference act unusual, and it protects the job a veteran already has rather than the one they are applying for. No veteran holding an office or employment in any public department or public works of the state, or of any county, city, township or village, may be removed or suspended, or transferred without consent, except for one of six things: official misconduct; habitual, serious or wilful neglect in the performance of duty; extortion; conviction of intoxication; conviction of a felony; or incompetency. That list is exhaustive. A reorganisation, a personality conflict, or a change of administration is not on it. The process is prescribed in unusual detail. The veteran is entitled to written notice stating the cause of removal, transfer or suspension at least 15 days before the hearing. The hearing is before a named official depending on the employer: the Governor for a state employee, the prosecuting attorney for a county employee, the mayor or village president or the commission for a city or village employee, and the township board for a township employee. At the hearing the veteran has the right to be present and to be represented by counsel. The removal, suspension or transfer may be made only on the written order of that official. Two deadlines run against the veteran. If a veteran has been removed, transferred or suspended other than in accordance with the act, they must file a written protest with the official whose duty it is to make the removal within 30 days of the action, or be deemed to have waived the benefits and privileges of the act. The hearing must then be held within 30 days of filing the protest. Back pay is not discretionary. Where a veteran is reinstated on the written order of the responsible official or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction, the veteran is entitled to compensation for the time lost from the date of dismissal or suspension to the date of reinstatement, at the rate of pay received at the date of dismissal. Who is outside it. Heads of departments, members of commissions and boards, heads of institutions appointed by the Governor, officers appointed directly by the mayor of a city under a charter, and the first deputies of those heads and officers. The related remedies. Section 35.403 makes a violation of the act a misdemeanour. Section 35.404 gives a veteran whose application for public employment was rejected a remedy, and 35.3 of the companion preference section makes mandamus available both to an applicant refused the preference and to an incumbent whose salary was reduced with intent to force a resignation. Section 35.402a counts a veteran's military service as a period of employment. A Michigan city may refer a protest to its legal department, which acts as a fact-finding body with power to examine witnesses and administer oaths and transmits written findings to the mayor, who then decides on the transcript.