Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title IV Chapter 31
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 31, § 7 (2026)

Promotional appointments in official service

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 7. Each promotional appointment within the official service shall be made pursuant to section eight or after certification from an eligible list established as a result of one of the following types of examinations: (a) a departmental promotional examination pursuant to section nine, (b) an alternate departmental promotional examination pursuant to section ten or (c) a competitive promotional examination pursuant to section eleven, provided that promotional appointments in such police and fire forces of cities and towns as are within the official service shall be made pursuant to section fifty-nine or section sixty-five. An appointing authority desiring to make a promotional appointment shall recommend the type of examination to be utilized.

An appointing authority desiring to make a promotional appointment within the official service, other than a promotional appointment pursuant to section eight, shall, if a suitable eligible list exists, submit a requisition to the administrator. Upon receipt of such requisition the administrator shall certify from such list the names of persons eligible for such promotional appointment. If no suitable list exists, or if the list contains the names of less than three persons who are eligible for and willing to accept employment, the appointing authority may request authorization to make a provisional appointment pursuant to sections twelve, thirteen, and fourteen or a provisional promotion pursuant to section fifteen.

An appointing authority may make a temporary promotional appointment to a temporary position or to fill a temporary vacancy in a permanent position. A promotional appointment made pursuant to this paragraph shall not be deemed to interrupt the period of service in the permanent position from which such promotional appointment was made where such service is required to establish eligibility for a promotional examination.

An appointing authority may make a promotional appointment of an employee in the labor service to a position in the official service pursuant to the provisions of section thirty.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1985–2006 · leading case: City of Somerville v. Somerville Mun. Employees Ass'n, 481 N.E.2d 1176 (Mass. App. Ct. 1985).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
City of Somerville v. Somerville Mun. Employees Ass'n, 481 N.E.2d 1176 (Mass. App. Ct. 1985). · cites it 2× “G. L. c. 31, §§ 7, 8. An appointing authority may make a temporary promotional appointment to a temporary position or to fill a temporary vacancy in a permanent position in accordance with the requirements of G.”
Mayor of Lawrence v. Kennedy, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 904 (Mass. App. Ct. 2003). · cites it 2× “The mayor of Lawrence, acting pursuant to G. L. c. 31, § 7, promoted Kennedy to the position of fire lieutenant on November 21, 1993.”
Goncalves v. City of Boston, 845 N.E.2d 1201 (Mass. App. Ct. 2006). “G. L. c. 31, § 7. Here, it is undisputed that the examination that each of the plaintiffs took in April, 2001, was the open competitive examination for original appointments, not promotional appointments.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.