841

Every career and regular employee of the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall become employees of the Advocacy Office within ninety (90) calendar days after the last approval corresponding to the transfer of programs and activities. Career or regular employees thus transferred shall earn salaries and have benefits comparable to those they had while serving in the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, but never reduced. The Advocate for Persons with Disabilities and the Director’s Council shall take any action needed to carry out said transfer and transition.The provisions of this chapter shall not be used as grounds for dismissal of any employee holding a regular or career position or construed as a requirement or basis for reducing or raising the salary and fringe benefits received by the employees of the agency from which they were transferred. Until the new Classification Plan of the Advocacy Office is approved, the Classification Plan of the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities shall be used.As of the effective date of this act, the Advocacy Office

n Plan of the Advocacy Office is approved, the Classification Plan of the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities shall be used.As of the effective date of this act, the Advocacy Office shall recognize the labor unions representing union employees transferred to the Advocacy Office, if any. The Advocacy Office shall honor any collective bargaining agreement in effect at the time of the transition until the same expires, in accordance with the legal provisions applicable thereto. In these cases, personnel transferred between components or other government entities that are part of an appropriate collective bargaining unit shall keep said right and, as an exception, may continue to be an appropriate unit without being subject to the provisions of any preceding law.No employee or former employee or his/her beneficiaries participating in the Retirement System shall lose any retirement benefits accrued as of the date of the creation of the Advocacy Office. History —Sept. 24, 2015, No. 158, § 4.01.