SB 339

This bill creates the Wisconsin Veterans Employment Initiative, a program to

increase the number of veterans holding permanent state government positions.

The bill creates a Council on Veterans Employment, which consists of the following

state officials or their designees: the secretary of administration, the administrator

of the Division of Personnel Management in the Department of Administration

(DOA), the secretary of veterans affairs, the secretary of workforce development, and

the president of the University of Wisconsin System.

The bill requires the council to advise and assist the governor and state

agencies with the recruitment and employment of veterans, including specifically

veterans with a service-connected disability rating, so as to increase veteran

employment in state government. Under the bill, the Department of Workforce

Development provides staff support to the council.

The bill requires the administrator of the Division of Personnel Management

in DOA, in consultation with the council, to develop and administer a human

resources staff training program to increase the recruitment and employment of

veterans in agencies. In addition, state agencies are required or encouraged to meet

certain hiring goals.

Agencies with more than 100 full-time employees must prepare and implement

a plan to employ qualified veterans with the goal of making the ratio of the number

of veterans holding permanent positions in the agency to the total number of

individuals holding permanent positions in the agency equal to the ratio of the

number of veterans in the state civilian labor force in the preceding fiscal year to the

average number of individuals in the state civilian labor force in the preceding fiscal

year. These agencies must also prepare and implement a similar plan to employ

qualified veterans with a service-connected disability rating.

Agencies with 100 or fewer full-time employees are encouraged to employ

qualified veterans with the goal of making the ratio of the number of veterans

holding permanent positions in the agency to the total number of individuals holding

permanent positions in the agency equal to or greater than the ratio of the number

of veterans in the state civilian labor force in the preceding fiscal year to the average

number of individuals in the state civilian labor force in the preceding fiscal year.

These agencies are also encouraged to employ qualified veterans with a

service-connected disability rating.

Finally, the bill permits the council to establish different employment goals for

veterans in state agencies than the ones specified above.