Oakland’s city administrator has rescinded about a third of the employee layoffs announced last month, Jestin Johnson told workers Tuesday.

Twenty-four people included in the original cuts will keep their jobs, but 42 workers will still be laid off. Thirty-four employees will be shuffled to other positions, in some cases demoted to lower levels or relocated to other departments.

“I am hopeful that we can continue work to find alternatives to workforce reductions,” Johnson said in his email to staff.

At the end of January, Johnson alerted city staff that 100 people would either be “bumped or laid off” effective Feb. 28, and sent out an initial 76 layoff notices at the time. The cuts spanned city departments, with Public Works seeing the greatest reduction. 

Johnson called these slashes a “challenging, but necessary” move to patch the city’s perilous budget. The city has also temporarily closed fire stations and canceled contracts with service providers in other efforts to close the $130 million gap.

Oakland’s labor unions quickly criticized the layoffs, saying essential employees shouldn’t have to pay the price of the city’s fiscal mismanagement. SEIU 1021 Oakland Chapter President Antoinette Blue accused the city of violating civil service law. She said the city has to notify unions before sending out layoff notices, but in this instance “they just went and did it.”

Blue also said the city erred in cutting more senior employees, skipping over temporary workers and others who are supposed to be placed on the chopping block first. A coalition of local unions laid out these grievances and proposed alternative financial actions in a letter to the administration last week.

SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 also said they filed an unfair labor practices charge over the rollout of the layoffs with the California Public Employment Relations Board on Feb. 10.

Those two unions couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday’s announcement. We will update this story if we hear back. We also reached out to the city attorney’s office for comment on the unfair labor practices charge.

Johnson’s Tuesday update says a total of 42 workers will now lose their jobs. Six vacant positions will also be eliminated. Temporary workers will still be cut Feb. 28, while the last day for permanent employees who’ve been laid off is March 14. 

“For all employees affected by these notices, I want you to know that you have my respect and appreciation,” Johnson wrote. 

In January, the city administrator announced another change affecting the local government workforce. Johnson ended Oakland’s pandemic-era remote work policy, requiring employees to work in person four days a week. For managers, the new mandate went into effect Tuesday. For others, the telecommuting era ends April 7.