Layoff notices continued to be sent out to state employees Wednesday - even as their union representatives were negotiating to reach a revised, no-layoff deal with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
The negotiators are hoping to craft an updated deal in the coming days that would be similiar to the four-year, no-layoff provision that was made in exchange for two years of wage freezes and changes in pension and healthcare benefits.
Regardless of what happens with the negotiations, Malloy is moving ahead with the closures of the Bergin Correctional Institution on August 5 and another prison in the fall.
"The prison closings are going forward,'' Malloy's senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, told reporters Wednesday. "They were always going to go forward. That pace has been accelerated, in part, because the agreement was voted down. But that was always going to happen.''
Later, Occhiogrosso added, "If there is an agreement, another prison will still close in addition to Bergin. In all likelihood, it will be Enfield. It might not happen by October 1, but soon after.''
Following the rejection of the original, 20-page deal by the rank-and-file union members, Malloy announced that the Enfield Correctional Institution would close by October 1. Since then, everyone from the prison guards themselves to state Sen. John Kissel to the local pizza shop employees have been concerned about the potential closure in Enfield.
The prison guards at Bergin will be transferred to other facilities after the prison closes - if the agreement is reached that there are no layoffs of unionized employees.
One of the problems is that thousands of unionized employees in 13 out of the 15 unions were scheduled to receive pay raises this month. About $4 million in pay increases are scheduled to show up in paychecks on Friday, July 29, but the two sides are currently talking about the precise mechanism for stopping the raises in the future and retrieving that money.
The actual layoff notices had reached 1,851 state employees as of Wednesday morning, according to the administration. Those include 448 at the Department of Transportation, 282 at the Department of Developmental Services, 233 at the Department of Correction, 208 at the Department of Children and Families, 165 at the Department of Social Services, 93 and the Department of Motor Vehicles. The totals are part of an aggregate, cumulative list that includes all of the previous notices.
By bargaining unit, the biggest layoff notices are 348 at NP-2 for service and maintenance workers, 323 at P-2 for social and human services employees, 229 at NP-3 for administrative and clerical workers, 223 at NP-6 for paraprofessional healthcare workers, and 193 at NP-4 for correctional officers.