PHOENIX โ Forty workers let go by the now-fired head of Arizonaโs Department of Economic Security got an early holiday gift Friday: Theyโre going to get their jobs back or be considered for comparable jobs.
But they arenโt getting the pay they missed.
The Department of Administration, which runs the stateโs personnel system, received 267 requests from former DES workers to review their firings, said spokeswoman Megan Rose.
Gov. Doug Ducey set up the review procedure on the heels of reports that Tim Jeffries had let go about 500 workers out of more than 7,000 at the DES since the governor appointed him last year.
Rose said after each of the 267 were โcarefully evaluated,โ it was determined there were 40 who โwere separated in a manner that did not follow the best practices of (the agencyโs) Human Resources Division.โ
โThese individuals will be contacted over the next week, before the end of the year, with an offer to rehire at DES into their previous positions, if available,โ she said.
โIf that position is filled or no longer exists, we will work to place them in a comparable position for which they are qualified. At a minimum, they will receive their previous salary,โ Rose said.
The workers also will come back with the sick time they had accumulated before they were fired. But Rose said they will not get the money they would have been paid had they not been fired.
Ducey hired Jeffries shortly after taking office, saying he would help streamline the huge agency that oversees a host of programs, from food stamps and welfare benefits to unemployment insurance. The DES also is responsible for investigating cases of adult abuse; its child-abuse investigation function had previously been taken from the agency, then under a different director, because of mismanagement.
Jeffries began weeding people out almost immediately.
โWe have already exited scores of legacy bullies in our great agency, and we will not relent until we have finished this task to honor, protect, and care for you,โ he wrote last year in a memo to employees.
He generated headlines with emails to all DES staffers that he would take their messages on a trip he planned to the Catholic holy shrine of Lourdes, and other emails promoting opposition to Proposition 205 on the Nov. 8 ballot, which would have legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
The scrutiny intensified after it was revealed that Jeffries had fired close to 500 workers, including many who previously received high evaluations and even raises. That raised allegations that the director was targeting women, minorities, older workers and gays.
It got to the point that Ducey removed Jeffriesโ power to fire workers and set up the review process for those already let go.
The apparent last straw for the governor came last month on reports Jeffries had flown to Nogales on a state plane to take several staffers out drinking during business hours.
