Section 45. The personnel administrator shall establish, administer and keep current and complete an office and position classification plan and a pay plan of the commonwealth.

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(1) In pursuance of such responsibility as to the said classification plan, the said administrator shall classify all appointive offices and positions in the government of the commonwealth, excepting such offices and positions in the professional staffs serving under the governing boards of institutions of higher education, in the judicial and legislative branches, in the state ethics commission, and in the departments of the state secretary, state treasurer, state auditor and attorney general, but including clerical assistants of registers of probate and employees employed by the commissioner of probation under section ninety-eight of chapter two hundred and seventy-six, and he may from time to time reclassify any such office or position. In so classifying or reclassifying any such office or position, the said administrator (a) shall ascertain and record the duties, responsibilities, organizational relationships, qualifications for, and other significant characteristics of the office or position; (b) shall group into single classes all such offices and positions, regardless of agency or geographical location, which are substantially alike in the duties, responsibilities, organizational relationships, qualifications, and other significant characteristics; (c) for each such class shall establish specifications which shall include (i) an appropriate descriptive title and code number for the class, which shall be the official title of all offices and positions in the class and shall be set forth on all payrolls by name or code, and (ii) the common features of the duties, responsibilities and organizational relationships of, qualifications for, and other significant characteristics of all offices and positions in the class; and (d) may from time to time establish new classes and alter, divide, combine or abolish existing classes.

(2) All such specifications shall be open to public inspection in the files of the human resources division within the executive office for administration and finance, where three sets of such specifications shall be maintained as follows:— (a) a list arranged alphabetically by class titles; (b) a schematic list arranged so as to show the relationships between all the said classes; and (c) a departmental list arranged so as to show for each agency, and the principal administrative units thereof, the relationships between the several classes of offices and positions in the agency and the principal administrative units thereof. The personnel administrator shall furnish to each appointing authority copies of such specifications for all offices and positions to which the appointing authority may make appointments. Any appointment to a position within the classification plan shall be terminated forthwith by said administrator whenever said administrator shall determine that the person appointed does not possess the approved qualifications for the position established by said administrator in accordance with subclause (ii) of clause (c) of paragraph (1).

(3) In pursuance of his said responsibilities as to the said pay plan, the personnel administrator shall allocate, as provided in paragraph four of this section, each such office or position to the appropriate job group in the salary schedule set forth in section forty-six or forty-six C, excepting such offices and positions the pay for which is or shall be otherwise fixed by law and those the pay for which is required by law to be fixed subject to the approval of the governor and council, and he may from time to time, in like manner, reallocate any such office or position. In so allocating or reallocating any such office or position, the said administrator shall use standard, objective methods and procedures for evaluating the same so that the principle of fair and equal pay for similar work shall be followed; and all offices and positions in the same class shall be allocated to the same job group.

(4) No permanent allocation or reallocation, in accordance with this section, of any office or position subject to the classification and pay plans provided by this section, shall be effected, unless and until

(a) a request for such allocation or reallocation shall have been made in writing to or by the personnel administrator;

(b) the written recommendation, if any, upon such request shall have been prepared by said administrator, which shall include the request, the comment and the recommendation of the appointing authority concerned which he is hereby required to make to said administrator;

(c) the written recommendation complying with clauses (a) and (b) shall have been filed on or before November fifteenth, and from time to time thereafter, by the personnel administrator with the budget director and the house and senate committees on ways and means, and shall be considered as a part of the budget preparation as provided in section six of chapter twenty-nine;

(d) it shall have been included in a schedule of permanent offices and positions approved by the house committee on ways and means and filed with the senate committee on ways and means, a copy of which is on file with the personnel administrator; provided, however, that during the period when the legislature is not in session, any new temporary office or position subject to the classification and pay plans provided by this section and essential for the operation of the service of the commonwealth may be temporarily classified and allocated, but shall not be effected unless and until clauses (a) and (b) shall have been complied with.

(4A) No part of the sums appropriated for any agency or subdivision of a department shall be available for the payment of any temporary or excess quota position if there is a similar position vacant within the quota of permanent positions as established by the appropriation account for such agency or subdivision of a department except such temporary positions as may be authorized under paragraph (4). Except as hereinafter provided, no additional temporary positions shall be authorized. The commissioner of administration may, however, upon certification that an emergency exists requiring additional temporary assistance to perform work essential to the public interest, authorize the temporary employment of such additional personnel as may be necessary within the limits of funds available for the purpose; provided, however, that such emergency authorization shall not be extended to the succeeding fiscal year. The commissioner shall forthwith notify the house and senate committees on ways and means of the employment of such additional temporary personnel. The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to positions essential for the care of patients or inmates in institutions or to positions essential for the educational programs in all institutions of higher education operated by the commonwealth, nor to the filling of a position under the provisions of section twenty-four B nor to a position required to correct an inequity determined as provided in sections fifty-three and fifty-six. Under no circumstances shall excess quota positions be authorized without prior approval by the house and senate committees on ways and means.

(5) Subject to the approval of the commissioner of administration, the personnel administrator shall make, and from time to time may amend, rules governing the establishment and administration of the said classification and pay plans, and credits due officers or employees, subject to this section, for previous services. Such rules, and amendments thereto, shall be open to public inspection in the files of the division of personnel administration and copies thereof shall be made available to officers and employees of the commonwealth upon request.

(6) In performing his duties under this section, the said administrator shall from time to time consult with the appointing authorities concerned, or their designated deputies, and may from time to time consult with representatives of officers, managers and employees of the commonwealth; and he may from time to time appoint and seek the advice of such committees of such officers, managers and employees, their representatives, and of consultants from outside the service of the commonwealth as he may consider necessary or desirable.

(7) Subject to the approval of the commissioner of administration and of the house committee on ways and means and after notification to the senate committee on ways and means, the personnel administrator shall establish a pay plan for persons in training at or in any agency of the commonwealth; provided, however, that the maximum salary under said plan shall not exceed the minimum salary for job group I under the salary schedule appearing in paragraph (1) of section forty-six.

(8) The foregoing provisions of this section shall be subject to the provisions of sections forty-six to fifty, inclusive, wherever the same or any of them shall apply.

(9) The following words as used in sections forty-five to fifty, inclusive, and in sections fifty-three to fifty-seven, inclusive, shall have the following meanings:—

”Class” or ”title”, a group of positions forming part of the classified service of the commonwealth established by sections forty-five to fifty, inclusive, and sufficiently similar in respect to duties and responsibilities that the same descriptive title may be used to designate all positions allocated to the class, the same general entrance qualifications may be required of incumbents of positions in the class, the same general tests of fitness may be used to choose qualified managers and employees, and the same schedule of pay may be made to apply under the same or substantially the same employment conditions.

”Class allocation”, the official initial placing of a class in a job group in the management or general salary schedule.

”Class reallocation”, the official subsequent placing of a class in a job group in the management or general salary schedule.

”Departmental list”, a listing of classes, irrespective of fields of work or job group, which are included in the authorized staff of an agency of the commonwealth, except offices and positions in the judicial and legislative branches, but including clerical assistants of registers of probate, and employees employed by the commissioner of probation under section ninety-eight of chapter two hundred and seventy-six, arranged to show the relationships between the several classes of offices and positions in said agency and in the principal administrative units thereof.

”Employee”, a person employed by the commonwealth in a non-managerial position which is allocated to the general salary schedule, whether or not such person can be represented by an employee organization under the provisions of chapter one hundred and fifty E.

”Increment”, the amount of dollars between any two consecutive step-in-range in the same job group in the management or general salary schedule.

”Job group”, a unit of the management or general salary schedule which includes all classes in the position classification plan which are sufficiently comparable in value as regards duties and responsibilities, irrespective of the field of work of which they form a part, so that the same salary range may be made to apply to all classes in the same unit of the management or general salary schedule.

”Manager”, a person appointed to a managerial position which is allocated to the management salary schedule and designated as a managerial employee under the provisions of chapter one hundred and fifty E.

”Position”, a job which may be held by an individual, manager or employee. There may be more than one position in the same class.

”Position allocation”, the initial official placing of a position in a class forming part of the position classification plan of the commonwealth.

”Position classification plan”, the plan resulting from position allocations pertaining to the personal services of the commonwealth, except offices and positions in the judicial and legislative branches, but including clerical assistants of registers of probate.

”Position reallocation”, any subsequent official placing of a position in a class forming part of the position classification plan of the commonwealth.

”Professional data processing positions”, classes of positions the duties of which require the incumbent thereof to have obtained through advanced technical training and education knowledge of the design, internal functions and characteristics of computers and computer software in order that he can perform the data processing functions necessary for implementation of any data processing automation plans or classes of positions the duties of which require the incumbent thereof to have obtained through advanced technical training and education the ability to enhance, modify, or add to the functions of computer operating systems.

”Salary range”, a range of salaries from a specified minimum to a specified maximum amount as applied to a job group.

”Schematic list”, a list of classes of offices or positions in all agencies of the commonwealth, except offices and positions in the judicial and legislative branches, but including clerical assistants of registers of probate, and employees employed by the commissioner of probation under section ninety-eight of chapter two hundred and seventy-six, all performing duties primarily in the same field of work, irrespective of department or job group, so arranged therein to show their relative position or degree of importance in the position classification plan of the commonwealth and to show the relationships between all the said classes.

”Specification”, a description of the characteristic duties and requirements of a single class.

”Step-in-range” or ”increment step”, one of the divisions of a salary range in a job group at which a manager or employee is compensated.