All employees and personnel of the department of social and health services directly engaged in services to veterans shall, on June 25, 1976, be transferred to the jurisdiction of the department of veterans affairs. All employees classified under chapter 41.06 RCW, the state civil service law, shall be assigned to the department to perform their usual duties upon the same terms as formerly, without any loss of rights, subject to any action that may be appropriate thereafter in accordance with the laws and rules governing the state civil service law.