Resources for City Workers

🔴 Civil Service governs the actions your managers and HR staff are allowed to take, so it is important to bookmark these pages!

🔴 Civil Service Rules

These rules are critical to understanding your rights as a worker for the City of New Orleans. If you have questions about raises, appeals, leave, promotions, working out of class, and much more, you can find the rules here.

Tip: If a document has a lot of pages, press CTRL + F on your keyboard and it will pull up a search window. You can type in what you are looking for, such as “promotions” or “discipline” or “leave”

🔴 Civil Service Appeal Process

Learn how to make an appeal here. Regular employees have the right to appeal disciplinary actions to the Commission. This includes dismissal, involuntary retirement, demotion, suspension, fine, reduction in pay, or letters of reprimand as defined in the Civil Service Rules [Rule I] above.

Letters of reprimand include any e-mail, PERFORM entry, or written form directly about you and your performance that your HR department and/or managers have access to.

Appeal Forms

🔴 Civil Service Commission Homepage

Find the rules, meeting dates, meeting minutes, recordings, and more here.

🔴 The CAO (deputy Mayor) is allowed to make blanket policies that affect your rights as a worker for the City of New Orleans. These get referred to in Civil Service Rules.

An important one is the Grievance Policy, but there are many others that will affect you. These include COVID exposure procedures, worker’s comp, employee reimbursement, work-from-home, vehicle usage, residency requirements, sexual harassment complaints, essential personnel, donating leave, and much, much more.. There are many others that could apply to situations you may encounter.

🔴 All Policy Memorandums

🔴 Grievance Procedures

If a co-worker or supervisor are taking actons that affect your ability to work safely or follow procedure, you may file a grievance within 5 days of the incident. The procedure is on Page 3.

Grievance Form

🔴 Worker’s Compensation Benefits

These can change, so be sure to check this often.

Injury Report Form

Return-to-Work Procedure

🔴 Disability (ADA) Accommodations

Many managers and HR departments may not be aware of this policy memorandum. You are able to apply for reasonable accommodations in order to perform your job. A physician’s note is usually required to prove your need.

Reasonable Accommodations Explanation

Request Form

Physician Signature Form

Supervisor’s Resolution Form

ADA Grievance Procedure

🔴 Sexual Harassment and Sexual Discrimination

There is a procedure for reporting and resolving sexual harassment issues in the workplace.

Complaint Form

🔴 The City Council gets to make local laws and ordinances that can affect you. They are the ones who were able to pass a resolution demanding a $15 minimum wage for City workers, which Civil Service complied with, as well as the Right to Organize Ordinance that went into effect in 2024.

You can watch their meetings, search their agendas, submit comments, and more on their site.

Meeting Schedule – There is a calendar, and then further down are recordings, and even further down are brief summaries that include what was passed in previous meeting

Website Live Stream – Includes searchable agendas

YouTube Live Stream

Councilmember E-mails

In 2023, NOCWOC worked with the City Council and other local labor organizations to pass the Right to Organize Ordinance. This piece of legislation protects the rights of city workers to organize, form a union, collectively bargain, and more.

Right to Organize Ordinance

Key protections:

🔴 right to organize and form a union

🔴 right to bargain collectively

🔴 protection from retaliation

🔴 right to discuss union matters on work time

🔴 right to use city communication systems to discuss union activity

The ordinance also lays out the procedure for certification and decertification of a union and creates deadlines for the city to respond to the collective bargaining unit.

A Labor Relations Advisor position was also created by the ordinance. The individual holding this position will be responsible for advising the Council on the implementation of the ordinance and mediating impasses between the collective bargaining unit and the city.