Kansas workers for the Department of Children and Family Services have been woefully underpaid for some time, and the results have been devastating. Now, the DCF has offered an option to employees: you can have a 2.5% raise — but only if you are willing to sign away your worker’s rights.
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The Kansas Department for Children and Families has offered some state workers a 2.5 percent pay raise if they give up employment protections to quell frustration over a pay plan passed by the Legislature.
That’s right. Workers who had been waiting for years for pay increases were given an option — take a meager pay increase, but only if you are willing to give up your rights as an employee to protections.
To get the raise, employees would have to give up their “classified” status, which allows them to appeal disciplinary decisions. According to the Department of Administration website, unclassified employees are considered “at will” workers. Gilmore said DCF and other agencies can’t independently raise pay for non-classified workers. That has to be done by lawmakers.
Choromanski said the move divided state employees by classification status. Employees that give up their classified status, he said, can “become arbitrarily terminated for no reason.”
Department of Children and Family services in Kansas has been a home of problematic policies and discussion of backroom deals to keep reporting low.
This became an issue prior, where director Phylis Gilmore had accused those who had problems with the department of left-wing bias, considering the organization was just trying to save money.
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The Kansas Department for Children and Families, which helped draft the legislation, responded with posts on Facebook and Twitter criticizing “the left” and The Eagle. The text of the Facebook post on the agency’s page was also sent to The Eagle as a letter credited to secretary Phyllis Gilmore.
“While the left is actively mocking the State of Kansas for passing legislation that protects taxpayer dollars and encourages personal responsibility, these are the same individuals who have since 1996, stood in the way of progress, keeping low-income Kansans dependent on assistance,”
How has it worked out for the department? Workers noted they faced considerable pressure to stay in line with the political goals of the group, and DCF has been linked with scandal, bad dealings, and politically motivated handling of children. I’ve tried to follow Kansas DCF through their own struggle — from the murder of foster children who were not properly supervised to pressure from employees for better treatment — and the decision to offer workers an option at increased wages should they turn over workers rights signals a new approach to taking away workers protections in one of the areas of our government that workers protections are among the most important considering they could be at risk based on political whims.
Update: KOSE, the Kansas State Employees Union has issued this statement.
KOSE is disappointed that Secretary Gilmore would use underhanded tactics to destroy the state's civil service system. It is the last standing defense to prevent the last vestiges of a merit-based state government from being run by political cronies loyal to Governor Brownback. No State of Kansas classified, civil service employee should be coerced to give up their inalienable, constitutional property right to appeal their dismissal, suspension, or demotion to the state civil service board for a measly 2.5% raise.
More on Kansas DCF Concerns:
Bombshell against Kansas DCF endorsing discriminatory practices
Child murdered, fed to pigs, as DCF fails to follow up
The conflicts and misuse of resources at Kansas DCF
Kansas DCF goes political, speaks to discriminatory group
Kansas DCF uses untrained investigators to devastating results