8.1.1 General Principles

Public employment is also usually (but not always) an exception to at-will employment. However, certain public employees enjoying some limited job protections. Generally these are employees covered by a federal, state, parish, or municipal civil service system (under which non-policy-forming employees are selected on the basis of merit and can be discharged only for reasons connected to work performance).1  Civil service systems are governed by a general constitutional and statutory framework2  and often have individual governing statutes, rules, or policies. Within such systems employers are generally reference to as Appointing Authorities.

Most civil service systems are governed by commissions or boards, quasi-legislative bodies “vested with broad and general rule-making and subpoena powers for the administration and regulation of the classified service.”3  A director provides the executive and administrative leadership.4  Most if not all systems enact their own rules, which must be published and made available to the public on request. These rules have the effect of law and prevail over contradictory statutory provisions unless the rules are unreasonable or unconstitutional. The interpretation and meaning of civil service rules is purely a question of law.

The unclassified service includes persons in a variety of positions, such as elected officials, registrars of voters, etc.5  Unclassified service members without employment contracts are functionally at-will employees and may usually be discharged without cause.

• 1Bannister v. Dep’t of Streets, 95-0404 (La. 1/16/96), 666 So. 2d 641, 646.
• 2La. Const. art. 10; La. R.S. tit. 33.
• 3La. Const. art. 10, §§ 2, 3, 10; La. R.S. 33:2396–2397.
• 4La. Const. art. 10, §§ 6–7; La. R.S. 33:2399–2400.
• 5La. Const. art. 10, § 2(B); La. R.S. 33:2401, et seq.