Michigan Act 78: Hiring, Discipline, and Appeal Rights

Michigan Act 78 of 1935 is a state law that places full-time paid firefighters and police officers employed by cities, villages, and municipalities under a merit-based civil service system, with detailed rules covering how they are hired, promoted, disciplined, and discharged.¹ If you work in one of those departments, or you’re trying to get in, Act 78 is the framework that shapes your career.

Who Act 78 Covers

The name sounds broad, but the coverage is narrow. Act 78 applies only to full-time paid firefighters and police officers in cities, villages, and municipalities that operate under the act. It does not govern other municipal employees, state workers, or part-time and volunteer personnel. Everything below — the exam, the eligible list, the probationary rules, the disciplinary hearing, the appeal to circuit court — applies to the covered fire and police workforce and no one else.¹

Getting Hired Under Act 78

To apply for a covered position, you must be a United States citizen. Lawful permanent residency alone does not qualify. You must have reached the age of majority and meet the commission’s educational requirement, which by statute cannot fall below an eighth-grade education, though most departments set the bar much higher.¹

Your application is filed under oath and must list your residences and places of employment for the previous three years. A felony conviction is an automatic disqualifier. The commission may also refuse to examine or certify you if you were previously dismissed from public service for misconduct, made a false statement on the application, or have a documented history of habitual substance abuse. Before you can be appointed, a licensed physician, physician’s assistant, or certified nurse practitioner must examine you and confirm you can perform the job.¹

The Examination

Act 78 requires that every examination test real merit and fitness for the position. The statute does not lock in a single format. Written tests, practical skills tests, and oral evaluations all qualify as long as they measure ability to do the work. The minimum passing score for entry-level exams is 70.¹

No question may ask about your political views or your religious beliefs, and the commission has to actively discourage candidates from volunteering that information. The protection extends past the exam itself: no one in a fire or police department may discriminate against a candidate or employee based on political or religious affiliation.¹

The Eligible List and the Rule of Five

Once examinations close, the commission publishes an eligible list showing the names and scores of everyone who passed. When a vacancy opens, the commission certifies the top five composite scores from examinations held within the previous two years. The appointing officer, usually the fire or police chief, then picks from those five names based on merit and fitness.¹

Veterans’ Preference

Honorably discharged veterans get a hiring preference across Michigan public departments, including under Act 78. A veteran’s age or physical impairment cannot disqualify them unless the impairment actually prevents them from doing the job.² Under Michigan Civil Service Commission rules, a qualifying veteran or surviving spouse gets five points added to their final passing score, and a disabled veteran gets ten.³ Because only the top five scores get certified for each opening, those extra points often decide whether your name is on the list at all.

Probation

Act 78 sets very different probationary periods for the two professions. Fire department probation runs six months from the original appointment. Police probation runs a full year, and the clock does not start until you complete the legally required basic training courses. That makes the total time between hire and permanent status meaningfully longer than a calendar year for police officers.¹

During probation, you can be dismissed for cause under the procedures in the act. At the end of the probationary term, if the appointing officer decides your performance has been unsatisfactory, you must receive written notice within ten days stating that you will not receive a permanent appointment. Your employment ends there. If no notice arrives, your continued service automatically becomes a final, permanent appointment.¹

Probationers keep real appeal rights. Even before you achieve permanent status, a dismissed employee has the right to a hearing before the civil service commission under the same procedures that protect permanent employees.⁴

Rights After You Reach Permanent Status

Once you’re permanent, your tenure lasts as long as your behavior remains good and your service remains efficient. You cannot be reduced in pay or position, laid off, suspended, or discharged for political or religious reasons. Whenever the department takes an adverse action against you, whether that’s a demotion, a layoff, or a suspension, it must give you a written explanation of the reasons, and you must be given a reasonable period to file a written response.¹

Layoffs follow reverse seniority. When a department reduces the total number of fire or police positions, the most recently appointed members are let go first. If positions later reopen, new hires cannot be made while qualified laid-off employees from the same department remain available and willing to return.⁵

Broader anti-discrimination protections come from Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, height, weight, familial status, and marital status.⁶ Fire and police employees are covered by both Act 78’s specific protections and Elliott-Larsen’s broader ones, so a discrimination claim can potentially move through more than one channel.

The Disciplinary Process

Act 78 permits removal, discharge, suspension without pay, and loss of vacation privileges or other benefits when an employee’s conduct or service falls short. What it does not permit is a summary decision. The department must deliver a written statement of the specific charges against you, and you have the right to file a written answer to those charges.¹

You are also entitled to a hearing before the civil service commission. Both sides may present their case, both sides may be represented by attorneys, and the commission decides whether the discipline was justified. That hearing is where preparation matters most, because the commission’s decision becomes the factual record if the case goes any further. No new evidence can be introduced on appeal.⁵

Appeals

If the civil service commission upholds the discipline, your next step is a direct appeal to the circuit court of the county where the municipality is located. You have 90 days from the date of the commission’s final order to file. The circuit court reviews the case on the record from the commission hearing. It does not take new testimony or additional evidence. Both sides may be represented by counsel.⁵

The circuit court’s decision is final, with one narrow exception. You may petition the Michigan Supreme Court to review the case. Whether the Supreme Court agrees to hear it is up to the court. The statute only preserves your right to ask.⁵

The Civil Service Commission Behind It All

Every city, village, or municipality with a full-time paid fire or police department covered by Act 78 must have a three-member civil service commission. That commission runs the exams, keeps the eligible list, and hears the disciplinary cases described above. One member is appointed by the municipality’s principal elected official with the legislative body’s approval and serves a six-year term. A second is elected by the firefighters and police officers themselves and initially serves four years. The third is chosen by the first two commissioners and initially serves two years. After those initial terms, every subsequent appointment runs six years.¹

No more than two of the three may belong to the same political party. Each commissioner must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of the municipality for at least one year, and a registered voter in the county for at least three years. Commissioners cannot hold any other public office or take an active role in managing a political campaign.¹ Those design choices are what makes the rest of Act 78 work: a body neither the department nor a single political faction can control, sitting between the employee and the decision to end a career.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Act 78 – Firemen and Policemen Civil Service System
2
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 35-401
3
Michigan Department of Civil Service. Civil Service Commission Rule 3-8 Veterans Preference
4
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Act 78 – Firemen and Policemen Civil Service System
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 38-514
6
Michigan Legislature. Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act