Vermont Veterans Preference in State Employment

Title 20, section 1543 gives preference in certification for appointment, in appointment, in employing, and in retention of employment position, whether in classified or unclassified civil service, whether for temporary or for extended time, wherever State funds furnish the payroll. Read the list of places the preference applies before the list of who gets it. Retention is in there. This is not only a hiring preference; it reaches the decision about who stays when positions are cut. And "wherever State funds furnish the payroll" is broader than the classified service, so it reaches unclassified and temporary positions too. Five classes are listed and the statute lists them in order. First, ex-service personnel who served on active duty in any branch, were separated under honorable conditions, and have established the present existence of a service-connected disability, or who are receiving compensation or disability retirement benefits under public laws administered by VA or the Department of Defense. Second, spouses of service-connected disabled ex-service personnel who have themselves been unable to qualify for any civil service appointment by reason of their disability. Note whose disability: the veteran's disability is what prevents the veteran qualifying, and the spouse takes the preference. This is a derived preference for the spouse of a living veteran, which is wider than the survivor-only preferences in most states. Third, unmarried widows or widowers of deceased ex-service personnel who served during any war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge was authorized, or during the period in subdivision (5), and were separated under honorable conditions. Fourth, ex-service personnel who served during any war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge was authorized, separated under honorable conditions. Fifth, ex-service personnel who served on active duty during the period beginning July 1, 1955 and were separated under honorable conditions. That fifth class is the one worth knowing about. Peacetime active duty at any time since July 1, 1955 carries the preference, with no wartime period, no campaign badge, and no minimum length of service written into the section. Federal veterans preference has nothing that wide. The first class has no percentage in it either. "The present existence of a service-connected disability" is the test. A 0 percent service-connected rating is the present existence of a service-connected disability, so it reaches the top class. Federal preference tiers at 10 to 29 percent and 30 percent and above; Vermont's statute does not tier at all. What the preference is worth in practice is not in the statute. The State's Recruitment Services Division describes points added to application scores and access to positions otherwise open only to current State employees. The statutory language is about preference in the decision, not about a point count, so ask the recruiter how the preference is being applied to a particular posting rather than assuming a federal-style point scheme. Separately, 21 V.S.A. chapter 5, subchapter 3 protects a Guard or Reserve member's civilian job, and that is a different benefit with its own entry.