AThe demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of American health agencies to draw attention to the devastating mass dismissals of the federal service in recent days, more employees in health agencies have been dismissed on Wednesday, including Employees with years of experience and stellar performance exams that were not probations.
Thousands of employees dismissed through the federal government appeal to the decision. Some former employees find it difficult to ask for unemployment or understand when their advantages expire in the chaotic dismissal process.
In the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), layoffs included all public health scholarship holders stationed in national, local and regional health services, as well as staff working on global health and the response to the epidemic – Even if the bird flu epidemic is accelerating and the CDC suspends its seasonal influenza vaccine campaign.
The Guardian spoke with four CDC employees who have been dismissed in recent days. Three anonymity requested to avoid reprisals from the Trump administration. All recently received satisfactory or exceptional performance reviews, and none of them had been placed on performance examination plans.
Mack Guthrie was part of the Public Health Partner program at the CDC – until everyone in the program is released on weekends. He worked in Minneapolis public schools to help prevent STIs and involuntary pregnancies by educating students, testing and advising patients in clinics and following the IST rates and trends.
All these layoffs are “a major success in the American health infrastructure,” said Guthrie, who had an exceptional performance exam, he was therefore amazed to see his performance listed as the reason for the end.
While all public health scholarship holders have been informed that they were dismissed, some have never received letters, said Guthrie, adding: “The whole process was dominated by chaos and confusion.”
The state, the tribal, local and territorial departments where they have been deployed “already begin to feel the effect of our absence,” said Guthrie.
“For some of my colleagues, they fill gaps on host sites that simply would not be filled differently,” he said. “These organizations simply do not have the funds to hire people.”
When a CDC employee tried to connect to his laptop on Wednesday morning, they received an error message and realized that they were locked up from the system, unable to communicate with their team or even say goodbye. They had been dismissed overnight and because they have not yet received a letter, they do not know the reason for their dismissal. This employee had years of experience and excellent performance magazines, and was not probative.
Affected period employees were particularly affected in this series of layoffs. This status has nothing to do with their performance, unlike employees who can be put in probation in the private sector. Rather, that means that they have been in their current position for less than two years, and therefore they do not have the same legal protections as other federal workers.
A licensed employee who has held the same position for four and a half years was surprised to receive an opinion that their work was considered probationary and that they were released, despite high praise on performance exams. They appeal to the decision of human resources, but have not yet received any answers.
The letters of forms sent to dismissed employees say that they “are not able to continue continuous employment” because their “capacity, knowledge and skills do not meet the current needs of the agency”, and their performances have not “sufficient to justify an additional job at the agency”.
Former CDC employees told the Guardian that they were now part of an unjustified dismissal call for class action at the US Merit Systems Protection Board – joining around 2,000 federal employees represented by the Washington law firm James & Hoffman.
On Wednesday, the head of the Merit Board of Directors was reinstated by a judge after the Trump administration tried to dismiss her.
“If you are going to end my post, don’t tell me that it is because of my performance,” said another employee who worked as CDC entrepreneur for four years before entering a probation period after having been permanently hired.
Employees who have been locked up with their systems with little or no notice are now rushing to recover their final pay checks, asking for unemployment, returning equipment and understanding their advantages.
The long -standing employee who was locked up on Wednesday told the Guardian that he had not received the appropriate documentation in order to request unemployment.
“When I called HR, the team just didn’t know what to do and I found myself:” Please remember tomorrow, we will have better advice “,” said the employee. “People do not even have essential documents to properly separate from the agency.”
The employees said that he had not offered him details over the duration of their annual leave, or even the duration of their health insurance.
“I still need to communicate with my center in terms of what is happening with my final pay check, how can I turn my equipment, and I don’t know how they intend to do it”, a declared the employee who worked at the CDC for five years.
The so-called “Department of Effectiveness of the Government”, known as Doge, has targeted certain layoff agencies in an alleged attempt to reduce public spending, despite a very small part of the federal budget.
“They feel wrong,” said the employee. “It seems to be a giant scam they were trying to see if it would work, and it did … I cannot believe that I lost my job following this group of people.”
The layoffs bear a stressful month for CDC staff rushing to implement the burst of Trump decrees.
“We worked 24 hours a day. If I did not work, I could not sleep – for weeks, since the administration has arrived – thinking of everything we had to do to answer these orders,” declared the employee who was at the CDC for four and a half years.
During all this time, they were waiting to learn if they would keep their work – a “dream work” which has become “a nightmare”.
“It was really part of my identity – I lived and ate it 24 hours a day,” said the employee. “It was so much of my life … I feel betrayed.”
The employee has urged the former supervisors and teammates to verify the well-being of licensed employees, some of whom report suffering from depression and anxiety.
“We have all considered the CDC as the final goal of a public career,” said the longtime employee.
“I feel like I have worked so hard to be where I am, only to look back and see an empty space. I know I did the work, but it is quickly removed. »»
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