Michigan Veterans Preference in Public Employment

Section 35.401(1) is one sentence and it is not a points system. In every public department and upon the public works of the state and of every county and municipal corporation of this state, a veteran shall be preferred for appointment and employment. Age, loss of limb, or other physical impairment that does not in fact incapacitate does not disqualify them. If a vacancy in an elective office has to be filled by appointment, that appointment is subject to the act too. What the applicant must bring. Good moral character, residence in the state for at least two years, and the other requisite qualifications, after credit allowed by any civil service laws. The two-year residency requirement is the condition most often missed, and it is longer than the residency test in most Michigan veteran programs. Who counts. Section 35.401(2) defines veteran as an individual who is a veteran under 35.61 and was honorably discharged. That is narrower than 35.61 standing alone, which accepts a discharge under conditions other than dishonorable. So a general discharge under honorable conditions is a harder case here than it is for the property tax exemption, which asks only for "honorable conditions", and than it is for the income tax exemption, which names a general discharge expressly. Where it yields. If there is a conflict between this act and 1941 PA 370, MCL 38.401 to 38.428, that act prevails. That is the county and municipal civil service act, so in a unit operating under it the civil service scheme governs where the two collide. The 2019 addition is the part almost nobody knows about. Section 35.401a, added by 2018 PA 381 effective March 19, 2019, provides that if this state or a political subdivision hires a veteran, it shall treat the veteran's military experience as relevant professional experience for the purpose of determining the veteran's wage or salary. It is a duty rather than a discretion, it applies at the moment of hire when the step or grade is being set, and it is the provision to cite when a Michigan public employer offers a starting salary that credits nothing for a twenty-year career. The enforcement machinery sits in the companion sections rather than here: mandamus and reinstatement under 35.404 and 35.402, and a misdemeanour under 35.403. Those are described in the separate entry in this catalog on removal from public employment. This act binds public employers only. A Michigan private employer may adopt a veterans preference voluntarily under the private employer's veterans' preference policy act, which is a separate entry.