At least 600 employees of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are being permanently terminated this week, according to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The move follows a recent court ruling that shielded some CDC staff from layoffs but left many others unprotected.
The layoffs are part of a broader downsizing plan announced earlier this year by Health and Human Services (HHS). The initiative aims to eliminate about 20,000 positions across the department, shrinking its workforce by more than 20 per cent. Thousands of employees had been placed on administrative leave since April while lawsuits challenging the cuts made their way through the courts.
Last week, a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a preliminary ruling that preserved jobs in several CDC divisions, including smoking, reproductive health, environmental health, workplace safety, birth defects and sexually- transmitted diseases. But other areas were not covered, and those staff are now receiving final notices.
Among the programmes affected are efforts to prevent child abuse, teen dating violence, and rape, as well as projects supporting international efforts to track violence against children. The cuts also impact the CDC’s freedom of information office. Roughly 100 employees working in violence prevention are included in the terminations, which come shortly after a shooting incident at the CDC campus in which a police officer was killed.
Union leaders criticised what they described as a lack of transparency from HHS, saying they have yet to receive official details of who is being laid off. For many employees, the terminations became effective on Monday, marking one of the largest workforce reductions in the agency’s history.
