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Eight Montgomery County government employees say their jobs are being eliminated in retaliation for concerns they raised over their manager.

The employees allege in their complaints that they were targeted because they belong to a union. The county, however, says the layoffs were justified.

Gino Renne, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994/Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, which represents the employees, said Tuesday that the incident is not the first example of abuse by management within Montgomery County government.

"There has been chronic, abusive, threatening, borderline criminal behavior by supervisors," Renne said. He said the union has reported three instances of aggressive, hostile behavior by managers in separate departments that currently are under review.

Without commenting on the complaints, county spokesman Donna Bigler said the county has a grievance procedure in place. "Managers should not be retaliating in any way," she said.

Renne said the union no longer will tolerate what he describes as chronic abuse of employees. He said he will begin alerting the media and the courts about the incidents, which he said County Executive Isiah Leggett's (D) administration is ignoring.

"I am warning every supervisor that supervises any MCGEO members to be on notice," Renne said. "If you cross the line with our members, we're coming after you."

In the most recent case, employees working in Technology Services say they complained to upper management and union leaders over a 10-month period.

As a result, the employees were notified March 15 that their jobs were being eliminated and that they would be laid off June 30, according to one of the employees, Nick Myers.

Montgomery County Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring called the allegations troubling.

Myers, who has worked for the government for almost 17 years, wrote in an email to council members March 31 that the employees all worked under Lucrezia "Jaz" Burris, who began supervising the data center operations team about one year ago.

According to county data, Burris began working for the county in 1986 and is paid $86,990 a year.

Myers wrote that Burris manages 10 employees, eight of whom filed complaints against her. Those same eight were the only employees to be laid off.

The employees filed a grievance through their union in which they allege they were not paid for overtime work, were subjected to a new work schedule that was not part of collective bargaining and were given poor performance evaluations after receiving good reviews under a previous supervisor.

One employee claims that Burris told him he gave off an odor and sprayed air freshener near his work station.

The employees also signed on to a petition of "no confidence" in Technology Services upper management for what they said was preferential treatment of Burris.

"What I don't understand is what is Ms. Burris' job now?" asked Councilman Hans Riemer (D-At large) of Silver Spring during a council committee meeting April 13. "She's supervising two employees who are left?"

When reached for comment Tuesday, Burris referred questions to the county's public information office.

E. Steven Emanuel, chief information officer, said Burris would supervise the remaining employees and take on additional job duties. He did not address Burris' performance and said he did not want to reveal too much about personnel issues.

He recommended that the eight positions in his department be eliminated because new technology made them unnecessary, he said.

The employees say they are responsible for monitoring the county's technology infrastructure — for government, police, fire and rescue, schools and others — and resetting passwords when necessary.

Those services now are available between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. Prior to the layoff announcement, Myers said the operations center was staffed around the clock.

If the positions need to be cut, Councilwoman Nancy Navarro (D-Dist. 4) of Silver Spring questioned whether the laid-off employees could be moved to other positions within county government based on their training and expertise.

Emanuel said that his department let go nine employees during last year's budget cuts. Of those employees, two took jobs outside county government and seven found new jobs within county government.

Emanuel said he consulted with Human Resources and followed county policies when laying off the employees.

Navarro, who chairs the council's Government Operations & Fiscal Policy Committee, requested that Emanuel report back to the committee on those policies and provide details on job openings the employees could fill in county government.

ecunningham@gazette.net