State Personnel Board

Hearings and Appeals

The State Personnel Board hears and decides appeals of state employees. Appeals may involve disciplinary actions (such as terminations, suspensions, demotions, and pay reductions), non-disciplinary actions (such as layoffs and administrative discharges), discrimination charges, whistleblower claims, and other issues. The Board can only reverse or modify an agency decision if that decision was arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to rule or law.

Colorado law applies strict deadlines to the filing of appeals. All appeals must be filed within 10 days from the date of the action being appealed. The filing date of the appeal is the date it was postmarked, hand-delivered, or received by fax at the Board’s office.

Colorado statutes require the Board to process cases under expedited timelines. Hearings must commence no later than 90 days after receipt of an appeal, unless the appeal is referred for investigation of discrimination or a response to whistleblower claims. The Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) conduct the hearings, and their initial decisions must be issued within 45 days of the end of the hearing. If a party appeals to the Board, the Board must issue its decision within 150 days.

An investigation by the Colorado Civil Rights Division (CCRD) into a discrimination charge may take as long as 450 days, and the employee can waive that investigation.

Initial decisions for the past ten years and Board orders for recent years are available on the web site, as are annotations of ALJ decisions.

Filing Requirements

All appeals and pleadings must be received by the Board on the date they are due, except that appeals will be accepted if they are postmarked within the ten-day time limit.

Parties should file only the original of a pleading until an initial decision or other dispositive order has been entered. In cases that are appealed to the Board, an original and nine copies must be filed of all briefs and motions, except for motions for extension of time, which only require the original.

If a party fails to file a required pleading, or fails to file an appeal or other pleading by the due date, the appeal may be dismissed or the party may be subject to sanctions.

The Grievance Process  back to top

A grievance is a complaint filed by an employee with the employee’s agency regarding working conditions when the employee’s pay, status or tenure has not been affected. 

A department may provide its own grievance process for the handling of grievances within its agency so long as that process does not conflict with the Board rules. At the end of this Grievance Process section is a list of various departments’ hyperlinks to their departmental grievance procedures. If you do not see your department listed, please contact your department’s human resources offices to determine whether your department has a departmental grievance procedure. 

The Board’s grievance procedure rules - Board Rules 8-5, 8-6, and 8-7 - provide the circumstances and parameters under which a grievance may be filed at the agency level and appealed to the Board. Board Rule 8-5 specifies those matters that may not be grieved or appealed. Board Rule 8-6 provides an employee with the right to ask the Board to review an agency’s final decision and determine whether the employee may be granted a hearing (referred to overall as the discretionary hearing process). Board Rule 8-7 explains the status of a grievance after an employee's separation from service or restoration to a position following involuntary separation.

Grievance Procedure at the Agency Level

The grievance process is a process that, at the agency level, usually unfolds in less than 60 days from start to finish.  Board Rule 8-8 outlines the steps for filing a grievance with an agency and then appealing the agency’s final decision to the Board. An employee must initiate the process within 10 days of the action being grieved by filing or lodging the grievance with his/her supervisor. Shortly thereafter, an informal discussion or meeting between the employee and the supervisor must occur. A decision in writing must be given to the employee by the supervisor within 7 days of the informal discussion or meeting. 

If the employee wishes to appeal that decision, then the employee must begin the formal written grievance process within 5 days of his/her receipt of the decision by filing a written grievance with the appointing authority (click on the link to obtain a copy of the form for filing a grievance). The appointing authority has 30 days from the filing of the written grievance process to render a final agency decision on the grievance. 

The employee then has 10 days from the receipt of that final agency decision to file a petition for hearing with the Board, under the discretionary hearing process, requesting a hearing on the final agency decision (click on the link to obtain a copy of the form for filing a petition with the Board). It is important to keep in mind that only those issues set forth in the written grievance filed with the appointing authority need to be considered in the final agency decision and by the Board in the discretionary hearing process. 

At any step of the agency grievance process, an employee may be represented by any person of his/her choice (a non-lawyer or a lawyer). However, the employee still must participate in the discussions during the agency grievance process.   

Board’s Discretionary Hearing Process

The discretionary hearing process, set forth in Board Rules 8-46 through 8-52, is the Board procedure an employee must use to appeal a final agency grievance decision to the Board.  The discretionary hearing process generally takes 90 days and begins with the filing by the employee of a petition for a hearing with the Board.  A copy of the petition filed with the Board must be provided to the agency. 

Fifteen days after the employee has filed the petition with the Board, the parties must provide each other with copies of all the documents or information that, in the case of Respondent, it relied upon in making the final agency decision on the employee’s grievance and in the case of Complainant, he or she relied upon in making the decision to grieve a matter and to file a petition for hearing challenging the final agency action. 

Upon receipt by the Board of the employee’s petition for hearing, the Board typically issues a Notice of Preliminary Review that tells the parties the deadline and required contents for the filing of Information Sheets. In addition to filing an original of the Information Sheets with the Board, the parties must also file their Information Sheets with the Board electronically (either on a disk or CD-ROM). 

An administrative law judge will review the information sheets and issue a decision, to be reviewed by the Board, which is called a preliminary recommendation.  This decision makes a recommendation to the Board to either grant or deny the employee’s request for a hearing.  Within 90 days of the Board receiving the petition, the Board, at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting, will consider the preliminary recommendation and decide whether to grant or deny the employee a hearing on the final agency decision on the employee’s grievance.

Hyperlinks to Other Departments' Grievance Policies and/or Information regarding the Grievance Process are below. (Check with your department’s Human Resources Director to make sure you have the most recent version.)

Colorado Historical Society  Grievance Procedure

Colorado School of Mines  Classified Employee Grievance Policy

Colorado State University Human Resource Services   Grievance Process 

Department of Corrections  Grievance Process Chart

Department of Human Services  Grievance Information

Department of Labor and Employment  Grievance Policy

Department of Military and Veterans Affairs  Grievance Policy/Process

Department of Natural Resources - http://dnrinsider.state.co.us/hr/appeals.htm

Department of Public Health and Environment
    Grievance Policy          Grievance Form

Department of Regulatory Agencies    Grievance Policy  

Metropolitan State College of Denver  Grievance Procedures

Secretary of State  Grievance Process

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs  Classified Staff Grievance Policy

Agencies who use the Board's grievance process and form:

Colorado College Access Network

Colorado State University - Pueblo

Department of Agriculture

Department of Education

Department of Law

Department of Local Affairs

Department of Personnel and Administration

Department of Public Safety

Department of Revenue

Department of Transportation

Department of Treasury

Fort Lewis College

Mesa State College

University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center

Western State College

Mediation and Settlement Programs  back to top

Board rules require parties to attempt to settle their cases; therefore, the Board conducts a settlement program for parties to appeals. All cases set for hearing are reviewed by Board staff, who may call the parties to offer settlement assistance or to schedule settlement conferences. If one party requests a settlement conference, the other party must either attend and make a good-faith effort to resolve the case, or file a motion explaining why settlement efforts would be futile.  For information on the Board's settlement program or to request a settlement conference, call 303-866-3300.

The Department of Personnel and Administration conducts the State Employee Mediation Program (SEMP), which uses state employees who have received 40 hours or more of training in mediation techniques. These trained mediators are used to help resolve conflicts in the state personnel system. For information on SEMP or to request mediation, call 303-866-4314.  Employees may also consult the Colorado State Employee Assistance Program (C-SEAP) at 303-866-4314 or the State Ombuds at 303-866-5383.

Training  back to top

In order to fulfill its mission to provide guidance in achieving and maintaining a sound, comprehensive, and uniform system of human resource management, the Board offers training seminars on the grievance, corrective action, and disciplinary action processes; discrimination; retaliation; practice before the Board; and other employment-related topics. For example, in December 2005, Board staff presented a Continuing Legal Education program for attorneys and human resources personnel called "Practice and Procedure Training." For information on the Board's training program or to request training, call 303-866-3300.

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