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Texas Payroll/Personnel Resource

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General Provisions
Temporary Assignments

Background

State agencies may need to create temporary assignments during times of emergency or special circumstance. Examine the following information before considering temporary assignments.

Duration of Temporary Assignments

Temporary assignments are not the same as temporary positions. A temporary assignment has a definite time limit. However, there is no time limit on how long an employee works in a temporary position.

Employees placed on temporary assignment may perform these other duties for a period not to exceed six months in a 12-month period.

When considering the limited allowable duration of temporary assignments (six months in a 12-month period), allow sufficient time to either handle the emergency or provide duty coverage.

Temporary Assignments Report

To monitor temporary assignments, consider viewing the Temporary Assignments Approaching/Over 6 Months Within a 12-Month Period Report (F48BTAND). This statewide report identifies:

  • Classified employees in temporary assignments set to expire within the month or that have already expired.
  • Classified employees who worked temporary assignments in the last 12 months of the report period.

The report is generated on the first Friday of every month and is available to agencies the following Monday.

Job Classification, Employee Type and Salary Group

When placing an employee on temporary assignment, the agency must change the employee’s current job classification code; however, the employee type is unchanged. For example, classified employees may be temporarily assigned to work in another classified job but not an exempt job.

During temporary assignments, employees must earn at least the same amount of pay they received before the reassignment.

Agencies may assign employees to a pay group with a higher minimum salary rate than their regular position, but cannot move employees on temporary assignment to a position in a lower minimum salary rate.

Employees temporarily designated to act as the administrative head of a state agency (defined as a state department, institution, entity or other agency in the executive or judicial branch of state government that employs a state employee) continue to receive salary for a classified position not to exceed the amount established by the General Appropriations Act for the administrative head of the agency.

Salary Actions While on Temporary Assignment

The following salary actions cannot be performed for employees on temporary assignment:

  • Awarding of merit increases
  • Promotion
  • Demotion

Note: The Employees Retirement System of Texas board of trustees is authorized to determine exemptions to this policy as necessary for the performance of fiduciary duties.

Additional Resources

To learn more about entering or sending a transaction for a temporary employee, see SPRS Reason Code Edits: Temporary Assignment/Removal Codes of the SPRS User Guide.

Also see the Human Resources Management Statutes Inventory general reference guide on the State Auditor’s office website.

Sources

Texas Government Code, Sections 659.251–252, 659.260, 815.208(e).