Laid-off Iowa state IT workers receive offers from private company

The offers come as Iowa transitions oversight of state websites and data to two private companies.

IT employees laid off as Iowa privatizes management of its government data and websites are receiving job offers from a private company contracting with the state, as promised by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Cognizant Government Solutions, the New Jersey-based company tasked with taking over daily IT operations for Iowa’s executive branch, sent offer letters to state workers whose jobs are being terminated as a result of the transition, according to the governor’s office and a state employee who is part of the layoffs.

Reynolds, who initially announced the transition to Cognizant and Amazon Web Services on June 9, maintained that the roughly 200 impacted state employees would receive “individualized, competitive job offers” from Cognizant by June 25.

State employees have until July 10 to accept Cognizant’s offers before the two companies begin providing the state services on Aug. 3.

The governor has touted the transition as a continuation of her administration’s initiative to consolidate and centralize the state’s IT services, which her office says will save taxpayers more than $525 million over 10 years

“This isn’t easy. Nobody likes to make decisions like that. It’s hard. We are so fortunate to have just the workforce that we have at the state,” Reynolds said in a June 19 interview on PBS’s Iowa Press. “They are providing the services every single day. But I also have a responsibility to the taxpayers of Iowa and Iowa, and we can’t keep doing things the way we did 40 years ago.

“This is where industry is going. This is where government is going.”

A state employee who was part of the layoffs and who asked to remain anonymous for fear of jeopardizing their employment, said they received an offer June 25 that included less expansive health and retirement benefits compared to state plans and a salary slightly higher than their state earnings.

Amid the layoff announcement, multiple state IT workers faced confusion and fear over their employment status as they waited for clear confirmation on future work, wages or benefits with Cognizant.

During one of many meetings between employees, state and Cognizant, employees were told if they accept the Cognizant offer, their job descriptions will remain the same for one year, according to the laid-off employee.

The companies will adjust job descriptions or let workers pick a different contract, the worker said, but there are no guarantees of employment past the first year.

“We are eager to welcome you to the team! You are joining the Company at an exciting time, and we know your fresh thinking and expertise will help us accomplish great things,” a Cognizant offer letter obtained by the Register states.

The state will pay Cognizant and AWS nearly $420 million over the next decade, $80.4 million of which will go to AWS to shift the state’s data from dozens of data centers and thousands of physical servers to a cloud-based system, according to contracts.

Gov. Kim Reynolds: State data is ‘secure’

As Iowa transfers oversight of government websites and data to Cognizant and AWS, Reynolds insisted the information will remain safeguarded.

“It (state data) absolutely is secure,” Reynolds said on Iowa Press. “There are all kinds of contracts and MOU and things that you have to sign. And even when it came to like the HIPAA data, we’ve got a form that you have to sign that you can’t release any of the information. They (Cognizant and AWS) have absolutely no access to any of that data.”

A data privacy framework for Cognizant to deal with customer data and confidential information is laid out in the contract between the company and the state. Under the agreement, the company must keep state data “secure, and not disclose or use it for any purpose other than providing Services under the Agreement,” the contract states.

The company may only retain state data to perform IT services for Iowa or with prior written approval of the state.

Rapid Response Politics Reporter Maya Marchel Hoff can be reached at mmarchelHoff@usatodayco.com. You can find her on X (formerly Twitter) at @mmarchelhoff.