This month, Chief Information Officer Stephen Fletcher started the process of consolidating about 1,000 workers under a new Department of Technology Services scheduled to be up and running by July 1, 2006.

At a meeting with about 200 workers Friday, Fletcher offered two choices to the state's computer programmers and systems analysts: take a modest pay raise now in exchange for "at will" appointed jobs without civil-service protections in the new division. Or, IT workers can forgo the pay raise now and keep their protected jobs. If they choose the latter option, they face the prospect of having their positions redefined anyway - and without a pay raise.

For most of the workers, it isn't much of a choice. They figure Huntsman's efforts to change their state employment status is just a step away from job cuts. While officials deny they are preparing for layoffs, Huntsman advisers in recent months recommended outsourcing IT jobs to the private sector to save money.

One state employee noted Huntsman's unceremonious firing of 33 appointed economic development workers last January. "We think of that, and we get a little nervous," he told Fletcher.

Fletcher insists the bureaucratic process of redefining hundreds of information technology employees' status is just a way to ease the transition to a more efficient office charged with programming and trouble-shooting state computers.

"Why would I disrupt a perfectly good business operation?" Fletcher asked the workers gathered in the State Office Building Auditorium on Friday afternoon. "We can't break anything. We have to make sure we maintain all our processes. We need the work that everybody is doing."

Huntsman has talked about centralizing state Information Technology workers since his transition team complained of redundancy and recommended hiring private sector contractors to do some of the work.

State lawmakers adopted a bill during the 2005 Legislature that requires Information Technology workers to change their status from "merit" to "appointed." Merit state employees can only be fired for cause and have the right to appeal discipline. Appointed employees can be fired at any time. Legislators exempted their own computer technicians and those who work in the courts from the consolidation.

Some state IT workers say they are being singled out. "The change of merit status for state government employees is not for all state employees, just for information technology professionals. Why the discrimination just for them?" Greg Berensen wrote in a Salt Lake Tribune letter to the editor. "The merit status of information technology and all state employees should be left alone."

Huntsman Chief of Staff Jason Chaffetz said this week the transition to a new department is not part of a larger scheme to set up state technology workers for job cuts.

And Fletcher tried to reassure state technology employees Friday that virtually all of them will be transferred to the new department. He plans to find duplicated effort and shuffle IT workers where they are needed most. For example, he says state software and computer purchases should be handled by a centralized office.

"There is some great work going on in the state. But there are also some things we want to do that not everybody is fully aligned on," Fletcher said. "We need to put the right people in the right place doing the right thing. At some point down the line, we are going to identify areas we want to do more efficiently."

One worker interpreted that under his breath: "Redeployment right to the unemployment line."