KDWPT Laying off 75 Employees

Dozens of seasonal employees at the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism were laid off the week before Christmas.

Department spokesman Ron Kaufman said Monday 75 seasonal KDWPT employees were told last week that their last day of work for the department was Friday. He said they’d receive their final paycheck in early January. Seasonal employees work fewer than 1,000 hours a year.

Kaufman says the cuts include employees in the department’s divisions of law enforcement, education, information services and fish and wildlife.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Secretary Robin Jennison is moving to eliminate 157 seasonal positions to accommodate the agency’s constricted budget. Of those positions, 75 were filled.

Jennison says he plans to urge the 2014 Legislature to reverse reductions in the agency’s seasonal workforce.