Governor Rell: Administration Moves to Reopen

Negotiations with State Employee Unions

            Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that her administration reached out to state employee labor unions last week to renew discussions to identify added labor cost savings within the state budget.

            The Governor said the administration’s lead negotiator Saranne P. Murray spoke with Dan Livingston of the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) last Friday.

“As the state budget continues to deteriorate amid falling revenues and a sluggish national economy I continue to do all I can under my authority to bring state government spending in line with fiscal reality,” Governor Rell said. “That includes finding more labor savings.”

The administration’s initial negotiations resulted in an unprecedented broad-based agreement with the state’s bargaining coalition of more than $700 million in concessions earlier this year. A provision in the agreement allows the administration to discuss $100 million in deferred state employee pension payments if the economy and budget worsen, which they have. The Governor said it is her intention to expand the search for labor savings beyond that one provision.

“It is essential that we examine additional savings over and above the $100 million in deferred pension payments,” Governor Rell said. “Employee costs are a huge part of our budget and my administration and SEBAC must move quickly and in good faith to identify and mutually agree on further savings.”

The earlier agreement freezes wages for state employees for one year and requires them to take at least seven unpaid furlough days – one before the last fiscal year ended on June 30 and three in each of the next two fiscal years.

It also created for a retirement incentive program (RIP) that resulted in nearly 4,000 employees leaving state service. In addition, it increased active state employees’ share of health care costs and prescription drugs. The agreement also established the “Rule of 75” governing entitlement to health benefits for state employees who leave state service with vested pension rights but do not immediately begin collecting a pension.

Under the agreement, the Administration has committed to no layoffs in Executive Branch agencies through the end of the biennium on June 30, 2011. The protections apply only to permanent state employees hired before July 1, 2009, and would not bar the Governor from restructuring agencies or eliminating positions, provided the affected employees could transfer to a comparable position elsewhere in state government. The Judicial Branch has agreed to comparable job security protections for its employees.

The first meeting of the new round of discussions has not yet been scheduled.

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