Rafferty v. Commissioner of Public Welfare

Rafferty, on February 22, 1981, was employed by the Department of Public Welfare (department) as assistant director in charge of field operations for the department’s child support enforcement unit (the unit). He was a provisional civil service appointee. G. L. c. 31, § 41. The function of the unit, which has about 340 individuals on its staff throughout the Commonwealth, is to collect and supervise child support payments from absent parents. The evidence showed essentially the following course of Rafferty’s work for the department.

In June, 1981, Rafferty was told by the unit director, Dennis…