Some fired Arizona state workers may get jobs back after appeal

Some fired state employees who appealed to get their jobs back may get some holiday cheer.

Henry Darwin, the governor's chief operating officer, told The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com he will be meeting next week with state Department of Administration officials to determine the outcome of at least 210 case-review requests from "involuntarily separated" employees.

Gov. Doug Ducey, responding to reports about questionable firings within the Department of Economic Security, created a hotline in late October for any state employee to call if they believed they were wrongly fired. More than two-thirds of the appeals came from the DES, which had the most at 144. The Department of Revenue had the second highest number at 14.

Fired workers can call 602-542-5482.

Darwin, who last week also was put in charge of the DES following the ouster of Director Tim Jeffries, said there is no guarantee any of those employees will get their jobs back.

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He said state officials will use the same criteria used this fall, when seven Department of Juvenile Corrections employees — including one with breast cancer — had their jobs restored after being improperly fired.

Darwin said key factors in any reinstatement will be whether employees were fired illegally or without justification, even though nearly all state workers are at-will employees who can be fired without cause.

At DES, The Republic found that about half of the workers fired had received merit raises for outstanding work.

Fired employees said Jeffries targeted women, minorities, gays and those with disabilities. Jeffries denied those accusations.

A 2012 personnel-reform law made it easier for the state to fire employees without cause.

In Ducey's first term, his agencies have fired more than 1,700 people, but public backlash led to the administration re-examining some of those terminations.

The Republic found the majority of those terminated under the Ducey administration were 40 or older.

The governor's office said no group of workers was targeted.

Ducey this year forced out three of his appointed agency directors following questionable decisions.

Two of them were forced to resign, in part, because of personnel practices.

Darwin said the Ducey administration within the past two weeks also created an additional layer of protection for employees as agency directors now must have all firings reviewed by a state human-resources officer.

If the human-resources officer does not agree with the firing, the agency director must then meet with the officer and justify the firing.

Agency directors, however, still have the final say in firing an employee, Darwin said.

But, all firings must be personally approved and signed by an agency director, and assistant directors or managers no longer can fire staff.

The 2012 personnel-reform law required the Department of Administration to review all firings, but that agency had little influence in the final outcome whether employees were fired.

Darwin said some of the 35 agency directors are not happy with the recent personnel changes.

"This should be unnecessary. They should know when it's appropriate or inappropriate to fire someone," Darwin said.

Reach the reporter at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8478.