Employment of Relatives/Nepotism

Policy Statement

Durham Technical Community College selects individuals for employment or promotion on the basis of training, experience, and other characteristics which best suit the individual to the job and best meet the needs of the institution.

The college shall not employ two or more persons concurrently who are closely related by blood or marriage in positions which would result in one person of such family relationship supervising another closely related person or having a substantial influence over employment, salary or wages, or other management or personnel actions pertaining to the close relative. "Closely related" is defined to mean mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, grandson, granddaughter, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, husband, wife, step-parent, step-child, step-brother, step-sister, guardian or ward. With respect to the concurrent service of closely related persons within the same academic department or other comparable college subdivision of employment, neither relative shall be permitted, either individually or as a member of a committee, to participate in the evaluation of the other relative. 

Employment restrictions might also include others living within the employee’s household or otherwise so closely identified with the employee as to suggest the potential for difficulty in the employment relationship. 

Board members shall not take part in any official action regarding the employment of a closely related family member that results in financial gain to the Board member. For any official action regarding the employment status of a family member that would result in the financial gain to the Board member, the Board member shall disclose the conflict to the full Board and will not take part in the official action unless otherwise allowed by law.

Procedure

Job applicants who know of a family relationship, regardless of the distance of that relationship, must notify the College of the nature of the relationship when submitting an application for employment. Employees with a known family relationship, regardless of the distance of the relationship, with a job applicant must notify Human Resources and Talent Management upon knowledge of the search process and submission of an application. Failure to disclose a family relationship may result in disciplinary action.