Missouri Veterans Preference in State Employment

Missouri's state employment preference is the weakest in this catalog, and the statute is short enough that the weakness is visible on its face. Section 36.220.1 has two sentences. The first says that in any competitive examination for the purpose of establishing a register of eligibles, veterans, disabled veterans, surviving spouses and spouses of disabled veterans shall be given preference. It does not say how much. There are no points anywhere in the section, no percentage, no ranking rule and no absolute ordering. The second sentence is the operative one and it is a tie-breaker: a veteran, or the surviving spouse of a veteran, a disabled veteran, or the spouse of a disabled veteran "shall be given preference in appointment to a position subject to this chapter pursuant to subsection 1 of section 36.030 over other eligibles if all other relevant job-related factors are equal". Preference operates only where the appointing authority would otherwise be indifferent. It moves nobody up a list and it beats nobody who is assessed as even marginally stronger. Descriptions of this benefit that say veterans "will receive preference in hiring" are accurate as far as they go and leave out the condition that decides every real case. Section 36.220.2 is separate and more concrete. Any person honorably discharged from the Armed Forces shall receive appropriate credit for training or experience gained in service in any examination, if the training or experience is related to the duties of the class of positions for which the examination is given. That is credit inside the assessment rather than a bonus on top of it. The Guard member has the better right. Section 36.221 says that in filling any position where employees are selected on the basis of merit under section 36.030.1, the appointing authority shall offer an interview to every person who is or was a member of the Missouri National Guard whose name appears on the register of eligibles. Section 105.1204 carries the same guarantee for state agency positions. That is a mandatory interview, not a tie-breaker, and it reaches former members as well as current ones. A veteran who never served in the Missouri Guard has no equivalent. Section 42.380, the Veterans' Bill of Rights, lists "preference in public employment as described in section 36.220" among the rights of Missouri veterans, along with a right to assistance from a veterans service officer, to counselling and information, to be treated with dignity and respect and to receive accurate, courteous and timely service, and to fair and equal treatment. The section creates no remedy, names no enforcement body and provides no penalty. It is a statement of policy, and the rights in it are worth exactly what the sections it cross-references are worth. There is no Missouri equivalent of the removal protections some states give a veteran in public employment: no right to a hearing before discharge, no writ, no attorney fees and no administrative enforcement body. A Missouri public employee who is a veteran has the ordinary merit system appeal rights and nothing more.