Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said on Thursday that his administration is ready to start issuing layoff notices to more than 1,000 state employees.
Malloy says the layoffs are needed to help close Connecticut’s burgeoning budget deficit, which is now more than $1.5 billion. He says he’s negotiating with SEBAC – the state employee unions’ collective bargaining units – to get concessions and avoid layoffs. But in case the negotiations fail, the layoff process has to begin in order for the job cuts to take effect by the beginning of the next fiscal year on July 1.
“We won’t be asking people to leave while we continue to try to negotiate with our employee base. But the reality is we have certain legal obligations to give a certain amount of notice.”
Labor concessions are a big part of Malloy’s ongoing budget negotiations with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the state General Assembly. But state employee union officials are urging the governor and lawmakers to solve Connecticut's budget problems without gutting services and putting thousands of state employees out of work.
