The Human Resources Division of the Administrative Office
of Courts in Alabama provides a full range of human resources services to the judicial
branch of government. Direct support is provided to approximately 2447 Unified Judicial
System (UJS) officials and employees. As of December 2007, included are 163 appellate
judges and employees, 1,978 trial court officials and employees, 10 Judicial Study
Commission employees, and 96 Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) staff.
Personnel Operations
The operations sections of the division processes all personnel
actions. Last year more than 6,984 separate actions were processed manually, including
appointments, separations, promotions, leave without pays, reclassifications; three
and six month probationary paperwork, annual probationary raises, and longevity
bonuses, as well as other miscellaneous actions such as tax, address, and name changes.
The operations section maintains all employee personnel records and position control
for the offices of more than 340 appointing authorities, using an automated information
system and periodic reports. This section also audits all UJS payrolls and certifies
state service for the annual longevity bonus.
Payroll Operations
The payroll section of Human Resources process daily data
entry; timesheets; one-time pays; supplemental pay; restitution checks weekly; mail
outs of payroll warrants; tracks payroll warrants, etc., Title IV information; duplicate/cancelled
warrants; county supplement; FICA cut offs; W-2 requests throughout the year; court
referral officer transactions; JPO fund changes/updates; insurance reimbursement
for separated/terminated/retired employees; longevity bonuses; deferred compensation
(PEBSCO, RSA-1, United Way); funding source/organization code changes; unemployment
compensation; insurance billing; direct deposits; employment verifications; retirement
contributions and miscellaneous deduction.
Fringe Benefits
The Human Resources Division is responsible for monitoring
a leave program (HRDesktop) for approximately 2,194 leave-earning employees and
AOC staff. Because leave represents a potential debt of the UJS, the Human Resources
Division audits leave accounts annually. The AOC and trial courts total leave liability
exceeded $15,691,839.00 in 2007.
Testing and Recruitment
For fiscal year 2006-2007, 977 applicants had taken the
written court specialist examinations. In addition to maintaining the open and promotional
court specialist registers, the division issued numerous special job announcements
for positions at the AOC, trial courts, and in the appellate courts.
Equal Employment Opportunity
As of January 1, 2008, there were 413 minorities employed
in the UJS. This included 32 elected officials as well as 17 appellate, 330 trial
court, and 34 AOC employees. This is 16.9 percent of the total Unified Judicial
System work force.