The Mower County board voted unanimously Tuesday morning to put roughly 39 employees on involuntarily leave in the event of a state shutdown.

If approved by the county employees’ two unions, the motion would be affective 11:59 p.m. Thursday, June 30. If the unions do not approve the motion, those employees would be laid off.

Twenty-six human service employees, 13.355 public health workers and a 0.5 environmental service employee would be placed on leave, which means they would still get insurance, but would have to use paid time off or vacation time.

“This is not a position any of us want to be in,” said board chairman Tim Gabrielson.

The unions are expected to make a decision today, but county officials won’t speculate on whether they will approve it or not.

A clause in the motion stipulates that as soon as a shutdown ends, the employees would go back to work immediately.

Department heads were calling the county to wait until more details came out about the shutdown before making a decision.

“If you wait two weeks, you could do it then,” said public health director Margene Gunderson.

Hennepin County also began sending more than 1,300 layoff notices to its employees this week.

Look to the Herald as this story develops.