Fired state workers call to appeal terminations
Fired state workers who want their terminations reviewed are calling the state Department of Administration after Gov. Doug Ducey pledged to allow employees who felt they were wrongly terminated to appeal the decision.
As of Monday, the Department of Administrations human-resources office has received 71 phone calls from former state employees appealing their terminations since Ducey announced the appeal process on Friday, The Arizona Republic reported (http://bit.ly/2dZlkFN).
The pledge comes after it was reported that more than 1,500 state employees have been involuntarily terminated since January 2015, when Ducey took office. Under Duceys predecessor, Gov. Jan Brewer, there were 551 terminations in 2013 and 547 in 2014 for a total of 1,098 in an equal time period.
The Republic found that 64 percent of those terminated were 40 or older, a protected class of employee under federal labor laws because they are nearing retirement age. Other employees who were fired were considered at will workers, meaning they arent covered and could be fired without cause. A 2012 law changed what workers were considered at will, greatly increasing the number of state employees eligible to be fired without cause.
Read more: http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2016/11/01/fired-state-workers-call-to-appeal-terminations/