The State Employees Council of AFT-Wisconsin issued the following statement today in response to proposed changes to state civil service law, and urged Wisconsinites to contact their legislators to oppose this attempt to weaken civil service:
The recent Republican proposal to reform Wisconsin’s Civil Service rules is an attempt to degrade the work of state employees, and will only serve to introduce more corruption into state government.
The Civil Service System was created to counteract the influence of politicians on state jobs. Allowing politicians to essentially appoint public employees, and to fire public employees on flimsy pretexts, promotes cronyism and corruption.
The likelihood of getting the best employees in state service jobs is also reduced. These proposed changes will make state jobs less attractive as a viable career choice for the best-qualified candidates. They will increase employee turnover, and service quality and accountability will suffer. The inability to find the best and brightest candidates is a direct result of this administration’s decision to vilify public employees, and to erode compensation and job security.
This latest proposal to change civil service rules is disheartening at best and disastrous at worst.
We ask that Wisconsin citizens that value good government contact their legislators to let them know that these changes are NOT in the public interest. You can find contact information for your legislators at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/.