53APromotion of officers who complete courses of training for special positions

##### 53A Promotion of officers who complete courses of training for special positions (1) The Board may, by notice in writing published in the Gazette, determine that: (a) a specified office (in this section referred to as a training office) is an office the occupant of which is required to undergo a course of training for the purpose of enabling him to perform duties that require professional, technical or other knowledge; and (b) an officer who has completed that course of training to the satisfaction of the Board is entitled to occupy an office (in this section referred to as the relevant higher office) having a classification that is specified in the notice. (2) If an officer is transferred or promoted under section 50 to a training office other than a training office that is an office of the Parliament within the meaning of section 9, another officer: (a) who holds an office the classification of which is not higher than the classification of the relevant higher office; or (b) who, being an unattached officer, performs duties in respect of which there is payable to him a salary that is, or the maximum rate of which is, not higher than the salary or the maximum rate of salary applicable to the relevant higher office; may appeal against the transfer or promotion of that first‑mentioned officer to the training office. (3) An appeal referred to in subsection (2) shall be made under section 50B and, for all purposes of that appeal: (a) in a case where the appeal is an appeal against the transfer of an officer to a training office: (i) references in this Act to the promotion of that officer shall be read as references to the transfer of that officer to the training office; (ii) references in this Act to the cancellation of the promotion of that officer shall, in a case where, immediately before that officer was transferred to the training office, he occupied another office, be read as references to the transfer of that officer back to that other office; and (iii) references in this Act to the cancellation of the promotion of that officer shall, in a case where, immediately before that officer was transferred to the training office, he was an unattached officer performing specified duties in a Department, be read as a reference to that officer’s being deemed again to have become an unattached officer and to his being required to perform those duties in that Department; and (b) in a case where the appeal is an appeal by an officer in relation to whom it would constitute a transfer for him to occupy the training office—references in this Act to promotion of that officer, shall be read as references to the transfer of that officer to the training office. (4) Subject to subsection (4A), where there is a vacancy in an office that is, in relation to a training office, a relevant higher office, the Secretary of the Department in which the relevant higher office exists shall: (a) if, at the time when that relevant higher office becomes vacant, an officer who has completed that course of training is, by virtue of the operation of subsection (7), an unattached officer—transfer that officer to that office under this section; (b) if, at the time when that relevant higher office becomes vacant, 2 or more officers who have completed that course of training are, by virtue of the operation of subsection (7), unattached officers—transfer to that office under this section whichever of those officers was the first so to become an unattached officer; or (c) if, at the time when the relevant higher office becomes vacant, no officer who has completed that course of training is, by virtue of the operation of subsection (7), an unattached officer—subject to subsection (8), promote to that office under this section the first officer to complete that course of training. (4A) Subsection (4) does not entitle: (a) an officer who holds a part‑time office to be transferred or promoted to a full‑time office; or (b) an officer who holds a full‑time office to be transferred or promoted to a part‑time office. (5) The promotion of an officer to an office under paragraph (4)(c) takes effect on the day on which the promotion is made and salary at the rate applicable to that office is payable to the officer on and from that day. (6) Where 2 or more officers complete a course of training at the one time or become, by virtue of the operation of subsection (7), unattached officers at the one time, they shall be treated, for the purposes of subsection (4), as having completed that course of training, or as having become unattached officers, as the case requires, in a sequence of time corresponding to the order of merit in which, on the assessment of the person or body conducting the course of training, those officers completed the course. (7) Where an officer who is entitled, upon completion of a particular course of training to the satisfaction of the Board, to occupy a relevant higher office so completes that course of training but there is, at the time when he completes that course, no vacant relevant higher office, or no vacant relevant higher office to which he is entitled under paragraph (4)(c) to be promoted: (a) he becomes forthwith, by force of this subsection, an unattached officer who is required to perform duties corresponding to the duties of such an office; and (b) he shall have the classification appropriate to the occupant of such an office and shall be entitled to be paid the salary that would, from time to time, be payable to him if he were the occupant of such an office. (8) Nothing in subsection (4) shall be taken to prevent a Secretary from promoting or transferring an officer under section 50 to an office to which that subsection relates at any time when there is no officer immediately entitled to occupy that office in accordance with a determination under subsection (1). (9) A transfer of an officer under section 50 to a vacant training office shall be notified in the Gazette. (10) Where an officer is transferred under section 50 from an office held by him to a training office, no person shall be appointed or transferred to that first‑mentioned office, and no promotion to that first‑mentioned office shall take effect, until: (a) if paragraph (b) does not apply—the period for appealing against the transfer of that officer to the training office expires without any appeal having been made; or (b) if any such appeal is, or 2 or more such appeals are, made within that period—that appeal or each of those appeals has been determined or has become inoperative.