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E. Consider veterans' preference, Veterans are not given the same rights in a layoff situation as they are in a termination decision. In general, a city may layoff (or denote) a veteran in situations where the veteran is the least senior employee the veteran's position is abolished. The job duties of the veteran should not be assigned to other less senior positions as this may haply that the position was abolished in order to avoid the veteran's right to a hearing. To determine if the position is being eliminated "in good faithf' the city needs to ask 1) Are the job duties actually eliminated or being re- assigned? 2) If duties are re- assigned, are they assigned to another non - veteran employee with less seniority than the veteran? 3 ) Is the position Ding abolished in good faith for a legitimate purpose or as a strategy to ternrdnate the veteran? A layoff notice provided to a veteran should include a statement like the following: G'Pursuant to the Pict, you have the right to either petition the District cow for a writ of mandamus or the Commissioner of veterans fairs to determine whether the action taken was in good faith. If you wish to pursue either of these remedies, you must do so within 60 days of receipt of this notice. Your failure to do so within 60 days shall constitute a waiver of your rights to contest your layoff under the Veterans Preference Act." F. Carefully consider early retirement incentives. The advantage of offering employees an incentive for early retirement is that it can be a fain painless way to reduce the work force. There are, however, some potential pitfalls to avoid with these incentives. In general, the city should: 1. Offer early refinement incentives across -the -board to all employs, or an entire group of employees (e.g., sworn Police Officers). If offering the incentive only to one group of employees, the city should be prepared to explain the business reason for offering it only to that group. 2. lake sum the incentive meets the definition of "voluntary" under Equal Employment Opportunity Conumission guidelines. For example, the city should make sure that the employees are given adequate time and sufficicnt information to make an informed decision about whether to take the incentive. If the city is asking the employees to sign a waiver of rights under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, specific time limits apply. An individual employee must be given 21 days and a group of employees must be given 45 days to consider the waiver. According to the EEOC, however, it is not coercion for the city to notify its work force that layoffs will be necessary if insufficient numbers of employees do not retire voluntarily unless older workers are the only ones threatened, 3. Establish parameters for the program. For example, the city may want to offer the early retirement incentive to all employees with ten years or more of service with the city and who have met age and service requirements necessary to receive a public pennon benefit. �5i