Nebraska Veterans Preference in Public Employment

Nebraska's preference is real, current, and applies far beyond state government. Section 48-226 requires that a preference be given to preference eligibles seeking employment with the State of Nebraska or its governmental subdivisions, and it covers initial employment, reassignment, transfer to a new position, and a return to employment where the previous employment ended for other than disciplinary reasons. Governmental subdivisions means counties, cities, villages, school districts and the rest. A veteran applying to a county road department or a city clerk's office is inside this statute. The arithmetic is in 48-227(1). A preference eligible who obtains passing scores on all parts of an examination or numerical scoring has five percent added to the passing score if the claim is made on the application. A disabled veteran gets a further five percent, for ten in total. The claim has to be made on the application; a veteran who says nothing gets nothing. Subsection (2) handles the far more common case where no examination or numerical scoring is used. Then the preference is given to the preference eligible if two or more equally qualified candidates are being considered, and where two or more preference eligibles are in that group the preference applies equally to all of them. This is a tie-breaker rather than a thumb on the scale, and it is the version of the preference most applicants will actually encounter. Subsection (3) requires that all notices of positions subject to veterans preference, and all applications for them, state that the position is subject to a veterans preference. A posting that says nothing is not complying. Subsection (5) requires that within thirty days after a position is filled, preference eligibles who applied and were not hired be notified by mail, email, telephone or personal service that they were not hired, and that the notice advise them of any administrative appeal available. Very few states require the employer to tell an unsuccessful veteran anything at all. Who is a preference eligible is defined in 48-225 and it is wider than the word veteran suggests. A veteran is a person who served full-time duty with military pay and allowances, except for training or for determining physical fitness, with an honorable or general under honorable conditions discharge. Full-time duty is then defined as duty during time of war or during a period recognised by VA as qualifying for VA-administered benefits, with an added rule that service between January 31, 1955 and February 28, 1961 must have exceeded one hundred eighty days unless the shorter service resulted from a service-connected or service-aggravated disability. So this preference does have a wartime element, unlike the Nebraska Veterans' Aid Fund. A veteran also includes the spouse of a veteran who has a one hundred percent permanent disability as determined by VA, or who was killed in the line of duty or died due to military service. And preference eligible includes the spouse of a servicemember, limited to the time the servicemember remains on active status and up to one hundred eighty days after discharge or separation. A military spouse whose family is stationed in Nebraska holds this preference while the service continues, which is an unusual reach. Disabled veteran, in 48-225(4), needs no percentage: active duty service, an honorable or general discharge, and the present existence of a service-connected disability, or receipt of compensation, disability retirement benefits or pension through VA or a military department. A ten percent rating and a zero percent rating both carry the second five points. Documentation is specified in 48-227(4). A veteran provides a DD Form 214 or successor. A spouse of a veteran provides the DD Form 214, the VA disability verification showing a one hundred percent permanent rating or documentation of a line of duty or service-connected death, and proof of marriage. A spouse of a servicemember provides proof of active status and proof of marriage. Any marriage claimed must be valid under Nebraska law. Enforcement is where Nebraska is unusual. Section 48-229 makes the Commissioner of Labor responsible for enforcing the sections, adjudicating disputed claims on the documents and on information from the armed forces, VA or the National Archives, and deciding appeals from preference determinations made by any employing agency. Subsection (2) directs the commissioner to allow a tentative five percent preference, pending further information, to a claimant who has not yet established entitlement. Section 48-230 then makes a violation a Class IV misdemeanour and provides that the violator shall be prohibited from receiving any compensation from public funds until they comply. Section 48-231 directs county attorneys to prosecute. Most states in this catalog write a preference and leave a disappointed veteran with nothing but a grievance procedure. Nebraska attaches a criminal penalty and a pay bar to the individual who breaks the rule.