The Newfoundland and Labrador government laid off three communications directors on Monday, despite multiple vacant positions within the department.

Sources tell CBC News all three of the communications directors who were laid off were in permanent positions and will have to be paid in lieu of notice.

Government issued a release Monday afternoon saying it will be paying out $132,000 in lieu of notice to cut the positions.

It's not known if they'd been employed long enough to also be paid severance.

Sources said the three people were fired without cause and escorted out of the building.

Communications staff fall under the public service commission and aren't political positions. The positions used to be political, until a change made by former premier Danny Williams made them civil servants.

PC MHA Keith Hutchings said the staff cuts were politicizing the public service.

"One can only speculate that this is all about politics. It's about appointing people that are of a Liberal stripe," he said. "They want to infiltrate the public service with their friends and they're starting that process and have been doing it for weeks."

"These people that are going out the door, they're meeting Liberal appointees coming in, which were never interviewed, which never went through the public service," he alleged.

PC MHA Keith Hutchings says the government is politicizing the public service.

Hutchings said the government should be more forthcoming about the process for these layoffs.

"The public knows what [communications] directors are, they're public service positions. If government is going to change that, do it through the front door…Tell them what you're doing," he said.

It's not clear why the trio were fired, even when government has two vacant communications director positions.

Government announced Monday it eliminated a total of 13 positions within the communications department. Ten of those were vacant.

The listing of communications staff shows a vacancy for a communications director for the Department of Municipal Affairs.

A position is also vacant in Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development, where someone is in the position in an acting capacity.