Updated at 4:42 p.m. and 7:48 p.m. on Wednesday, June 4
Denver officials want to make it easier to lay off employees who have traditionally been protected by seniority. Instead, the city wants to implement an entirely “merit-based” system for deciding who loses their jobs.
The push to “streamline” layoffs comes months before Mayor Mike Johnston will likely announce layoffs to help fill the city’s $250 million budget hole.
“The intention of this revision is to ensure that layoffs are implemented in a more streamlined manner that is consistent with the merit-based career service personnel system, serves the best interests and operational needs of the involved department or agency and provides due process protections to the affected employees,” the notice states.
The city will host a hearing June 18 for the public and city employees to weigh in.
With the change, the city says, layoffs will be “determined solely on performance (excluding employees entitled to military service credits) instead of a combination of seniority and performance[.]"
The change will largely affect employees who have been working for the city for decades — but who are not close to retirement. The plan includes protections for those near retirement.
“Employees designated to be laid off who are close to attaining retirement eligibility will be allowed to remain employed long enough to retire,” the public hearing notice states.
The city argues the change will create “flexibility” for layoffs. But former city worker and 2023 mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón says doing away with seniority protections comes with costs — and perhaps an ulterior motive.
“It's a convenient way to get rid of the mayor's critics and also public service veterans who have been there for years,” she said. “So you're going to lose a lot of historical knowledge. They want to get rid of them, because they're the ones who are making higher wages because they've been there, they've done the work.”
Theresa Marchetta, spokesperson for the city's Office of Human Resources, said the proposal was a needed update.
"The goal of the proposal is twofold: first, to ensure that layoff decisions are based on an employee’s demonstrated performance, skills and expertise rather than primarily on tenure; and second, to streamline and update the layoff process to help departments and agencies meet their operational needs while also impacting the fewest employees," Marchetta wrote in a statement. "Under the proposal, which will need to go through the career service board, seniority would no longer be the primary factor in determining layoff order. Instead, it would allow the city to retain employees who have shown high levels of performance and possess the skills most critical to our operations."
Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for the mayor, said Johnston and his team support the Office of Human Resources' proposal to the Career Service Board. She noted both the office and the board are separate from the Mayor's Office.
"We agree that the change is necessary given our current economic challenges," she wrote.
The public hearing will be Wednesday, June 18, at 9 a.m. in the Career Service Hearings Office on the first floor of the Wellington Webb Building, at 201 West Colfax Avenue.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comments from the Office of Human Resources and the Mayor's Office.
