SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Fifty-five workers who have been told they’re being laid off by the Illinois Department of Transportation claimed in a lawsuit Friday that they’re being fired to spare Gov. Pat Quinn election-campaign embarrassment over a hiring scandal.

The Democratic governor’s administration fired the so-called “staff assistants” last month in an IDOT shake up over a state investigation that found the agency hired 255 people over 10 years without going through proper channels to give everyone a chance to be hired.