At least 600 CDC employees are getting final termination notices, union says

New York – At least 600 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention receive permanent dismissal notices following a recent court decision which protected certain employees of the layoffs but not others.

Opinions have been released this week and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government employees, which represents more than 2,000 paid members at the CDC.

Officials from the US Health and Social Services have not immediately responded to a request for comments.

AFGE officials said they were aware of at least 600 employees.

But “due to an amazing lack of transparency on the part of the HHS”, the union did not receive official notifications from which is dismissed, “the federation said in a statement on Wednesday.

Permanent cuts include around 100 people who have worked in the prevention of violence. Some employees have noted that these cuts occur less than two weeks after a man pulled at least 180 bullets on the CDC campus and killed a police officer.

“The irony is devastating: the very experts trained to understand, interrupt and prevent this type of violence were one of those whose jobs were eliminated,” some of the employees affected in a blog post last week wrote.

On April 1, HHS officials sent dismissal opinions to thousands of CDC employees and other federal health agencies, part of a radical overhaul designed to considerably shrink the agencies responsible for the protection and promotion of the health of the Americans.

Since then, many have been on administrative leave – paid but not authorized to work – while prosecution has taken place.

A federal judge of Rhode Island last week rendered a preliminary decision that protected employees in several parts of the CDC, including groups dealing with smoking, reproductive health, environmental health, occupational safety, congenital malformations and sexually transmitted diseases.

But the decision has not protected other employees of the CDC, and the layoffs are finalized in other parties of the agency, including in the Office of Freedom of Information. The layoffs were in force on Monday, were informed of employees.

The affected projects included work to prevent rape, abuse of children and violence for adolescent dates. The licensed staff included people who helped other countries to follow violence against children – an effort that helped give birth to an international conference in November during which countries spoke of setting the objectives of reducing violence.

“There are national and international experts who will be impossible to replace,” said Tom Simon, principal retired director of scientific programs in the CDC violence prevention division.

___

The Department of Health and Sciences of the Associated Press receives the support of the scientific and educational group of the media from the medical institute Howard Hughes and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.