Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 221 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 70, as appearing in the 1986 Official Edition, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 70. Subject to appropriation, the chief administrative justice may appoint for attendance upon the several sessions of the trial court such officers as he deems necessary for the efficient operation of said court.

SECTION 2. As of the effective date of this act, any per diem court officer, so-called, scheduled to work at least one thousand nine hundred and fifty hours in the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eighty-eight shall be deemed to have been appointed as of said effective date under the provisions of section seventy of chapter two hundred and twenty-one of the General Laws and shall be deemed to have been permanently appointed under said section seventy upon the completion of a six-month probationary period. Any person hired subsequent to said effective date but prior to the date of passage of this act on a full-time basis, as determined by the chief administrative justice of the trial court, as a per diem court officer shall be deemed to have been appointed under said section seventy of said chapter two hundred and twenty-one, as so amended, as of the date of such hiring, and shall be deemed to have been permanently appointed under said section upon the completion of a six-month probationary period. For the purposes of determining the seniority of such officers with regard to promotion, demotion, transfer, assignment, reduction in force, recall, or removal, and for the purposes of determining the step-in-range in which such officers are to be placed in the job group to which they are allocated in the job classification and pay plan of the trial court, such officers shall be deemed to have been appointed as of the effective date of this act; provided, however, that in determining the relative seniority of two or more per diem court officers appointed pursuant to this act, seniority shall be determined from the earliest date on which such officers first began continuous service to the effective date of this act, provided that "continuous service" shall mean service as a per diem court officer of a least twelve hundred hours actually worked per fiscal year. All other matters related to the employment status and rights of such officers shall be determined by the chief administrative justice of the trial court.

SECTION 3. The provisions of section one shall not impair the employment status or rights in effect pursuant to section seventy of chapter two hundred and twenty-one of the General Laws or any other general or special law or rule or regulation prior to the effective date of this act for any officer serving pursuant to said section seventy prior to said effective date.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect as of July first, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven.