DeLeon Guerrero: Annual leave provisions should uniformly apply to all gov’t employees including municipal employees
Senate President Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) believes that the annual leave provisions in the Commonwealth Code should uniformly apply to all government employees including the municipal employees.
DeLeon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune yesterday that all government employment annual leave is being paid out of public funds therefore it is prudent to have consistency on statute regarding re-employment.
The president introduced on Tuesday a legislation to make the annual leave provisions apply to all government employees including municipal employees.
DeLeon Guerrero’s legislation, Senate Bill 23-58, will amend a statute regarding public employment to read that “government employee” means any person employed for any department, division, or agency of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of government and in any political subdivision, independent or autonomous agencies.
She stated in the bill that the Office of the Attorney General issued a legal opinion that the annual leave restrictions provided by a statute pertaining to public employment’s repayment of lump sum payments, do not apply to municipal employees because the term “government employee” as defined in a statute regarding public employment does not specifically include a person employed by a “political subdivision or municipal corporation.”
She said this OAG legal opinion allowed certain municipal employees to receive a lump sum payment for their annual leave after leaving the employment of the mayor’s office and be immediately hired under new employment positions contrary to the re-employment restrictions set forth in the Commonwealth Code.
The president said the CNMI laws especially laws affecting government employees must be applied consistently and uniformly among all government employees employed by any office or agency in the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and in the municipalities or political subdivisions, public corporations and autonomous agencies of the Commonwealth government.
DeLeon Guerrero said uniform application of all public employment laws promotes fairness and equity for all government employees.
Annual leave
Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero
