§ 355. Officers and employees; transfer, promotion and seniority. 1. Officers and employees of state departments, agencies, or divisions may be transferred to the authority and officers, agents and employees of the authority may be transferred to state departments, agencies, or divisions, without examination and without loss of any civil service status or rights. No such transfer from the authority 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, and vice versa, may be made from interdepartmental promotion lists resulting from promotion examinations in which employees of the authority 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.