HARTFORD — Layoffs are continuing in Connecticut state government, with 166 employees at the Department of Correction receiving pink slips.
Gov. Dan Malloy’s budget office, the Office of Policy and Management, announced Thursday that most of the job cuts affect staff providing support services at the state’s prisons. However, 40 new correctional officers were also among those receiving layoff notices.
OPM said the prisons agency reviewed its staffing plan and will restructure assignments to reduce overtime costs. Some staff will be redeployed from non-inmate supervision to direct supervision.
The job cuts are part of an effort to cut costs to help cover a projected $922 million deficit in next fiscal year’s budget, which takes effect on July 1. Notices have been issued to 518 Executive Branch and 126 Judicial Branch workers.
The AFSCME Local 387 President Rudy Demiraj, AFSCME Local 391 President Collin Provost and AFSCME Local 1565 President Mike Tuthill released a joint statement:
“Connecticut’s correctional staff put their lives on the line on a daily basis to keep our prisons and our communities safe. It’s a shame Governor Malloy is playing politics with our lives and our futures instead of doing the right thing, which is to honor a contractual agreement that has benefited our state, and to find other ways of making government more efficient and effective. Laying off workers who defend and protect the citizens of our great state is an unacceptable alternative to doing the right thing. We will continue to fight the governor’s reckless layoffs and service cuts.”
