
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 8, 1995                   TAG: 9505080064
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STATE WORKERS

STATE EMPLOYEES who were invited by Gov. Allen to apply for a ``buyout'' and leave their jobs, only then to have their applications rejected, are now being offered the chance to appeal the rejection.

The appeal process was set up by the administration presumably to make it look somewhat less arbitrary and capricious.

Presumably, too, there's recognition that morale among state workers has been sinking throughout the nearly 18 months that Allen has been in office - and was certainly not improved by the way the buyout program was handled.

Indeed, the entire initiative may have been botched. Careful study will have to be undertaken to show the full impact of the buyout program, but right now it's not clear that benefits will exceed costs. The effect at Virginia Tech, for example, may be to further damage an institution taking incessant hits from Richmond.

Amid such problems has been the blow to those who responded to the buyout offer, then were turned down. Of more than 7,000 state employees who tried to take the money and run, about 2,000 were told it was no-go.

In fairness, the appeal process indicates at least some effort to be fair to the rejected employees, and to make them feel better by offering them a second chance.

But the reason given for many of the rejections was that the employees were ``essential'' workers in essential jobs.

It's hard to see how rejectees will be made to feel better by having to argue that they are not essential people, that they've been doing work that is less than necessary, important or relevant, and that they are, in fact, dispensable.

by CNB