Denver cutting some city employees’ hours down to zero in order to support migrants

The city of Denver on Monday announced some of its employees may have all their hours cut in order to reallocate funds towards dealing with the city’s migrant crisis. 

"The City of Denver is trying to avoid the word ‘layoffs’ when it comes to impending budget cuts. So instead, they’re telling some hourly on-call employees they may have their hours reduced to zero," local NBC affiliate 9News reported. 

The city government is looking to cut $4.3 million in funding from its Parks and Recreations department and use that money towards handling the migrant crisis that has been stressing the city's resources. 

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Denver Parks and Recreations director Jolon Clark provided details on the budget cuts in a recent statement.

"The reduction in hours of operation and programs will affect the number of hours worked by many on-call, some to the point where they may not receive any hours," he told 9News. "The final decisions on hours for any individual position have not been made yet." 

According to the department, the city employees whose hours are on the chopping block are "on-call employees," which include lifeguards, coaches, and front desk workers.

"The number of hours an on-call works can vary from individual to individual and by the season," the statement continued. "Some on-calls can support multiple functions, some may only teach one class all year long."

Employees who can’t make a living thanks to the cuts are eligible to apply for unemployment benefits. 

With some employees at risk of losing all their work hours, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston doesn't consider them layoffs. 

In a press conference on Feb. 9, he said, "These direct impacts on DMV do not involve layoffs, nor do Parks and Rec involve layoffs of our current employees."

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He added, "We will have hourly workers that will have fewer hours. If we reduce your hours and you’re an on-call worker, that’s true. We will have on-call workers that we won’t hire for the summer that we will have hired otherwise. This does reduce new hires that we would’ve brought on."

Johnston held back tears during the press conference as he criticized the federal government for not doing enough to help with the migrant crisis. 

"I’m incredibly proud of how city team members have stepped up over the past year, but it is clear that the federal government is not going to support our city," he said. 

He also slammed Republicans for killing the Senate's bipartisan border bill, saying it "will have a devastating impact in Denver."

Mayor Johnston has predicted that the migrant crisis will cost the city around $180 million this year alone. He previously told Fox News Digital the situation was not sustainable and called on lawmakers in Washington to find a solution together.

"If we had more resources at the border, we had more security, we had more administrative officers to actually process people, we could do it more effectively and efficiently. I think the political gridlock in D.C. has kept them from being able to respond in the way they wanted to," Johnston said last month.

The mayor's office and Denver Parks and Recreation did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.