Section 355. Officers and employees; transfer, promotion and seniority

1.
  Officers and employees of state  departments,  agencies,  or  the  canal
  corporation may be transferred to the authority and officers, agents and
  employees  of  the  authority  may  be transferred to state departments,
  agencies, or the canal corporation, without examination and without loss
  of any civil service  status  or  rights.  No  such  transfer  from  the
  authority  or  canal  corporation  to  any  state department, agency, or
  division may, however, be made except with the approval of the  head  of
  the  state  department, agency, or division involved and the director of
  the budget and in compliance with the rules and regulations of the state
  civil service commission.
    2. Promotions from positions in  state  departments  and  agencies  to
  positions  in the authority or canal corporation, and vice versa, may be
  made from interdepartmental promotion  lists  resulting  from  promotion
  examinations in which employees of the authority, employees of the canal
  corporation, and employees of the state are eligible to participate.
    3. In computing seniority for purposes of promotion or for purposes of
  suspension or demotion upon the abolition of positions in the service of
  the authority or in the service of the state, in the case of an employee
  of  the  authority  a  period  of prior employment in the service of the
  state shall be counted in the same  manner  as  though  such  period  of
  employment  had been in the service of the authority, and in the case of
  an employee of the state a period of prior employment in the service  of
  the  authority shall be counted in the same manner as though such period
  of employment had been in the service of the state. For the purposes  of
  the  establishment  and  certification  of  preferred  lists,  employees
  suspended from the authority shall be eligible for reinstatement in  the
  service  of  the  state, and employees suspended from the service of the
  state shall  be  eligible  for  reinstatement  in  the  service  of  the
  authority,  in the same manner as though the authority were a department
  of the state.  All provisions contained within  this  subdivision  shall
  apply to the canal corporation in the same manner that they apply to the
  authority.