Most Missouri state employees are “at-will” workers not entitled to seniority protections or grievance rights when they are fired, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
In an opinion that overturned a Cole County Circuit Court decision, the high court declared that a 2018 law repealing the merit system for most state workers is constitutional. Three unions representing state employees alleged the law illegally altered their collective bargaining agreements by denying them job protections guaranteed in the contracts.
Those agreements, Judge W. Brent Powell wrote in the unanimous decision, all included provisions stating that changes in state law could change the employment terms.
“Crucially, all the (agreements) included savings clauses, recognizing the provisions of the (agreement) could not supersede law and allowing for modification of the (agreements) upon changes in the law,” Powell wrote.
Soon after the law was passed in 2018, the state Personnel Advisory Board issued new regulations eliminating seniority protections for layoffs and recalls; for-cause protections for suspensions, dismissals, and demotions; and grievance procedures for employment actions such as transfers.
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