Five child welfare workers fired in the wake of a scandal about uninvestigated abuse complaints won’t get their jobs back.

But, a court ruling leaves open whether the firings were justified.
 
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld their dismissals yesterday. Judge Andrew Gould, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, said the five were all supervisors, which means they were "at-will'' employees who, under state law, could be fired for any reason.

The five senior Child Protective Services workers were fired in 2014 after the discovery that thousands of child abuse hotline calls were labeled as not worthy of being investigated, or NI.

The workers, all of whom were women, argued that they were let go for political reasons and not because they failed at their jobs.

Terry Woods, who represented the five, was asked after the ruling, whether his clients had been scapegoated.

“Unquestionably. I’ve always believed that," Woods said. "These were superstar employees. The NI designation -- it had been in and out of use three times in 10 years. It was nothing new. ”

The scandal three years ago, resulted in CPS being shuttered and the creation of a new Department of Child Safety.