Jefferson County, AL - After a 2 month furlough, nearly 700 Jefferson County employees will be heading back to work Monday. Also Monday morning, the county's satellite courthouses in Homewood and Center Point will reopen.

The move comes after nearly 1,000 workers were put on unpaid leave because the county's financial crisis left it unable to issue paychecks.

One returning worker, AJ Johnson, says the fact that he'll soon be getting a paycheck is great. But he says there is an underlying sense of job insecurity because he feels he could be laid off again. Commissioner Shelia Smoot doubts layoffs of this magnitude will ever happen again. She also says to remember that the root of this problem stems from lack of action in the state legislature regarding the occupational tax.

"This has been an extreme ordeal. This has been something that I thought that shouldn't have happened to us. When we go back to work, are there going to be some bitter people? Yes are there going to be some people that don't trust the people at Roads and Transportation that say they had our best interests at heart. Do we really trust those 5 county commissioners," says Johnson, Roads and Transportation worker.

"I'm an optimist and I'm a realist at the same time. Right now, we are making sure that we continue to operate in our balanced budget, which we have. We make sure that we stay within our means and we don't overspend. If everyone participates then there won't be another layoff," says Smoot.

All the employees will come back to a 32 hour work week.

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