As of this writing, the Department of Health has advised its unions that 233 people are directly impacted by the cancellation of federal grants. 57 of those are contractors who were immediately let go. The remaining 176 are full-time employees (FTE) who have contract protections including a 21-day notice period.
We are grateful that, so far, no one in MGEC is affected by a layoff. We hope that continues to remain the case. But if circumstances change, we will communicate them as soon as possible and we will fight to maintain the protections of our labor agreement.
Those affected FTE also have “bumping” rights, meaning that they can use their seniority to take the job of someone with lower seniority provided they are qualified. Over 700 MDH employees have received notification that they are subject to being bumped.
After these events unfolded, MDH won a temporary restraining order (TRO) in court with the assistance of the Attorney General. This placed a 14-day pause on the grant cancellation, but it remains to be seen whether the federal government complies with the TRO. As of this writing, the agency was going to “test” the financial transaction process to determine compliance with the TRO. The federal government has not complied with other valid TROs. Also, the agency is working to verify the accuracy of its lists of affected employees – this could change as they discover and resolves errors in their crunch to deal with the new reality.
All of this drives the importance of maintaining accurate seniority lists and Position Descriptions; the latter is used by HR staff to determine whether someone is qualified, and the former identifies the order of a potential layoff.