(a) Except as hereinafter provided in this Section, no officer or employee in the classified civil service of any municipality who is appointed under the rules and after examination, may be removed or discharged, or suspended for a period of more than 30 days, except for cause upon written charges and after an opportunity to be heard in his own defense. The hearing shall be as hereinafter provided, unless the employer and the labor organization representing the person have negotiated an alternative or supplemental form of due process based upon impartial arbitration as a term of a collective bargaining agreement. In non-home rule units of government, such bargaining shall be permissive rather than mandatory unless such contract term was negotiated by the employer and the labor organization prior to or at the time of the effective date of this amendatory Act, in which case such bargaining shall be considered mandatory.
Such charges shall be investigated by or before the civil service commission, or by or before some officer or board appointed by the commission to conduct that investigation. The finding and decision of that commission or investigating officer or board, when approved by the commission, shall be certified to the appointing officer, and shall forthwith be enforced by that officer. Before any officer or employee in the classified service of any municipality may be interrogated or examined by or before any disciplinary board, or departmental agent or investigator, the results of which hearing, interrogation or examination may be the basis for filing charges seeking his removal or discharge, he must be advised in writing as to what specific improper or illegal act he is alleged to have committed; he must be advised in writing that his admissions made in the course of the hearing, interrogation or examination may be used as the basis for charges seeking his removal or discharge; and he must be advised in writing that he has the right to counsel of his own choosing present to advise him at any hearing, interrogation or examination; and a complete record of any hearing, interrogation or examination shall be made and a complete transcript thereof made available to such officer or employee without charge and without delay. Nothing in this Division 1 limits the power of any officer to suspend a subordinate for a reasonable period, not exceeding 30 days except that any employee or officer suspended for more than 5 days or suspended within 6 months after a previous suspension shall be entitled, upon request, to a hearing before the civil service commission concerning the propriety of such suspension. In the course of an investigation of charges, each member of the commission, and of any board so appointed by it, and any officer so appointed, may administer oaths and may secure by its subpoena both the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of books and papers relevant to the investigation. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to require such charges or investigation in cases of persons having the custody of public money for the safe keeping of which another person has given bonds.
This subsection (a) does not apply to police or firefighters in the classified civil service of a municipality of 500,000 or fewer inhabitants.
(c) Whenever the corporate authorities of any municipality in which this Division 1 is in operation, designates by ordinance or whenever any general law of this state designates any specific age of not less than 63 years as the maximum age for legal employment of policemen or firemen in the service of any municipality which has adopted or shall adopt this Division 1 or designates any minimum age for the automatic or compulsory retirement of policemen or firemen in the service of that municipality, any such policeman or fireman to whom such ordinance or law may refer or apply upon attaining the designated age of 63 years or upwards as set out in the ordinance or law shall forthwith and immediately be retired from the service of that municipality in accordance with the terms or provisions of that ordinance or law. The civil service commission of the municipality shall discharge or retire automatically any policeman or fireman in the classified civil service of the municipality at the time and in the manner provided in that ordinance or law and certify the retirement or discharge to the proper branch or department head. In the case of any such policeman or fireman who has filed an application for appointment in the classified civil service of the municipality, the age stated in that application shall be conclusive evidence against that policeman or fireman of his age, but the civil service commission (except as respects police department officers and employees in municipalities of more than 500,000 population where the Police Board shall exercise these powers as provided in Section 10-1-18.1) may hear testimony and consider all evidence available in any case in which any charge is filed against any such policeman or fireman alleging that he understated his age in his application for appointment into the classified civil service of the municipality.
In addition to all the other powers now granted by law, the corporate authorities of any municipality which has adopted or shall adopt this Division 1 may by ordinance provide an age limit of not less than 63 years as the maximum age for the legal employment of any person employed as a policeman or fireman under this Division 1, and may provide in that ordinance for the automatic or compulsory retirement and discharge of the policeman or fireman upon his attainment of the designated retirement age.
This Section does not apply to the suspension, removal or discharge of officers and civilian employees of the police department in the classified civil service of a municipality of more than 500,000 but that disciplinary action may be taken by the Police Board, rather than the civil service commission, as provided in Section 10-1-18.1.