Section 420.10  Definitions

"Allocation":  The assignment of a position to a class based on duties, responsibilities and requirements.

"Appropriate Supervisor":  An employee who has the authority to resolve an employee's grievance.

"Certified Employee":  An employee who has successfully completed a required probationary period and attained certified status during the employee's most recent period of continuous service.

"Certified Status":  Status achieved through the completion of a probationary period.

"Class":  A composite of positions that are sufficiently similar, in terms of duties and responsibilities, requiring the same or related knowledge, skills, abilities and licenses (if required) to fulfill them, and the same title, selection instrument, salary range or rate of pay that would apply equitably to each.  Example:  All Executive I positions in the Office of the Secretary of State are a class.

"Code":  The Secretary of State Merit Employment Code [15 ILCS 310].

"Commission":  The Secretary of State Merit Commission.

"Continuous Service":  The uninterrupted period of service from the date of original appointment to State service.

"Department of Personnel":  The Secretary of State Department of Personnel.

"Director of Personnel":  The Director of the Secretary of State Department of Personnel.

"Employee":  Any employee on the payroll as well as any employee on a leave of absence granted pursuant to this Part.

"Executive or Administrative Employee":  Those employees who have principal administrative responsibility for the determination of policy or principal administrative responsibility for the way in which policies are carried out.

"Executive Security Officer":  A law enforcement officer charged with executive protective duties.

"Highly Confidential Employee":  An employee who occupies a position that, by its nature, is entrusted with private, restricted or privileged information of a type that would preclude its being subject to Jurisdiction B.

"Immediate Family":  Father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, spouse, parties to a marriage, domestic partners (established prior to 6-1-11) or party to a civil union, including adoptive and custodial relationships and "in-laws".

"Jurisdiction A":  The Section of the Code that deals with the classification and compensation of positions in the Office of the Secretary of State.

"Jurisdiction B":  The Section of the Code that deals with merit and fitness as it applies to positions in the Office of the Secretary of State.

"Jurisdiction C":  The Section of the Code that deals with the conditions of employment of positions of the Office of the Secretary of State.

"Licensed Attorney":  Attorneys who are licensed to practice law within the State of Illinois.

"Next Higher Supervisor":  An employee who is authorized to adjust grievance resolutions offered by an Appropriate Supervisor; an employee who may be locally or regionally assigned to resolve Level 2 grievances.

"Organizational Entity":  An organization whose chief executive officer reports directly to the Secretary of State or the Assistant Secretary of State.

"Pay Plan":  The plan, authorized by the Secretary of State Merit Employment Code, that sets forth rules for salary treatment when processing personnel transactions and other compensation actions and identifies the various salary schedules.

"Pay Status":  An employee who is active on the payroll of the Office of the Secretary of State and who receives wages for hours worked, paid holidays and benefit time used.

"Position":  A set of duties, authorities and responsibilities.

"Position Description":  The official document that identifies the duties, responsibilities, location and reporting relationships of a position.

"Probationary Period":  A period of six calendar months (or 979 hours) immediately following an original appointment or reinstatement, or a period of three months (489.5 hours) following a promotion.

"Series":  A class series is composed of two or more individual classes that are directly related in type of work performed, responsibility exercised and background experience required, while differing in levels, difficulty and/or achievement of these same terms.  The classes of a series are similar in title and are usually sequential in nature from lowest to highest.  Example:  Executive I, II, III, IV and V are a class series.

"Sworn Personnel – Inter-Agency Assignment":  Employees of the Office, vested with police authority, who are assigned to an affiliated outside organization for a determined time frame to perform police officer duties.

"Time of Hostilities":  Any period of time during which a declaration of war by the United States Congress has been or is in effect or is recognized by the issuance of a Presidential Proclamation or Executive Order as defined in Section 10b.7 of the Secretary of State Merit Employment Code [15 ILCS 310/10b.7].

"Title":  A title is the name by which a class is known.  Example:  Executive I is a title.

"Unskilled Positions":  Positions whose primary requirement is that incumbents be of good physical condition.

(Source:  Amended at 39 Ill. Reg. 14182, effective October 19, 2015)