"Redlining" has been a term of art in the state human resource system for many years. An employee is redlined when he or she is not being paid a salary amount in his or her salary range. Redlining originated in statute, was modified in collective bargaining, and was further refined in contract arbitration.

In response to a 1984 contract arbitration concerning salary reconstruction, Personnel Memorandum 4-84 (07/23/84) provided definitive guidance for the administration of retroactive pay and redlined salaries. The 1984 arbitration award was significant by establishing that if a salary reconstruction results in a reduction in salary, the employee is redlined and continues to receive his or her salary at the time the reclassification is effective.

Despite the prohibition against reducing an employee’s salary as a result of reclassification or reallocation, civil service law also requires that no position may be assigned a salary greater than the maximum, or less than the minimum, rates fixed in the compensation plan. In other words, an employee’s actual salary must be at a step that is within the salary range established for the classification. That being the case, the redline salary continues until a step within the new salary range is equal to, or greater than, the redlined salary rate. This practice reconciles the prohibition against lowering an employee’s salary and the requirement that an employee be paid within the salary range for his or her classification.

A redline situation may also develop in the event a recruitment and retention stipend was to be reduced or eliminated. In that event, the salary for employees in the affected classification(s) would be redlined at the rate of pay that was in place immediately before the stipend was eliminated.

Except as noted below, the redline salary continues until salary increases (usually merit increases and/or general salary increases) in the employee’s appropriate salary range equals or exceeds the redline amount. At that time, the employee reverts to the applicable step in his or her salary range.

In the event that a redlined employee accepts promotion, demotion, or transfer, and the salary remains below the redline amount, the redline salary rate is discontinued and the employee is placed at the appropriate step for the new position. The appropriate step is calculated using the salary the employee would have received, not the redline salary. The redline salary is dropped because the salary change is no longer the result of a reclassification or reallocation, but rather a promotion, demotion, or transfer.

110899PJS
102717JTC