The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) issued layoff notices to a whole bunch of workers Wednesday after a federal decide final week shielded some however not all places of work inside the company.
“I can confirm that roughly 600 CDC employees were let go,” an American Federation of Authorities Workers (AFGE) spokesperson stated in an announcement to The Hill. “The cuts are across the agency including the Division of Violence Prevention, EEO, FOIA, the Office of Financial Resources, the offices of the chief information and chief operating officers, and more.”
The AFGE blasted the timing of the firings, happening so quickly after the deadly capturing that occurred on the CDC’s places of work in Atlanta.
“When we face that next public health crisis, we do so with a decimated and demoralized workforce,” the union stated in an announcement. “HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] has shown that it does not have the organizational or operational capacity to take over the support functions that the agency had before these firings. This reduction in force was operationally a mess. They have shown they are in no way prepared to support CDC when America needs it most.”
Final week, U.S. District Choose Melissa R. DuBose issued a ruling revising her earlier injunction during which she discovered the layoffs have been seemingly illegal.
“The Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” DuBose wrote in her preliminary July ruling.
In her order issued final week, she scaled again the scope of the preliminary ruling. DuBose specified that sure subagencies and packages have been blocked off from layoffs, together with the Nationwide Middle for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the Division of Reproductive Well being; and the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being.
This left unnamed subagencies open to layoffs.
An HHS spokesperson confirmed the layoffs when reached by The Hill, noting the workers reductions are the ultimate a part of the method that started in March as a part of President Trump’s Division of Authorities Effectivity govt order.
The HHS on the time stated it was looking for a discount in workforce of about 10,000 full-time workers.
