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October 14, 2009
CONCORD – Roughly 300 workers will be laid off or transferred to lower-paying positions this month as Gov. John Lynch moves to save $25 million in the state budget.
Lynch said he warned for months layoffs would be necessary if state workers rejected a contract that called for 19 unpaid furlough days over two years. State Employees Association members voted 2,708 to 1,875 to reject the contract, which would have covered 11,500 state workers.
"It's going to be a difficult time for the affected state employees," Lynch said. "The opportunity was there to avoid this situation."
As Lynch was explaining the move to reporters, the chief of the New Hampshire Hospital announced a unit that handles brain injury victims will close by Oct. 30. Patients will be discharged or transferred and workers will be laid off or reassigned.
SEA President Gary Smith said Lynch's move to cut workers who deliver services smacks of political grandstanding. An unexpected $56 million that went into the state's Rainy Day Fund makes the layoffs unnecessary, he said.
In a bad economy, with demand for services rising, it makes no sense to cut people who deliver those services, he said.
"When something defies logic, it's because it's politics. He's playing politics," Smith said.
Lynch put himself into a "political box" by giving workers the stark choice between furloughs and layoffs, he said, adding: "He has to posture and show he's tough."
Lynch would not specify what government agencies will be hit. Only jobs that will save the state money will be cut, he said.
That means layoffs are unlikely at the Department of Employment Security, which is federally funded. Banking, Insurance and the Public Utilities Commission appear safe, too, since they run on fees from companies they regulate.
Many Safety and Transportation jobs rely on highway funds, not general tax revenues. Safety Commissioner John Barthelmes told his workers in a memo yesterday "there will be no layoffs" in his department.
Health and Human Services, the state's largest agency, runs on a combination of state and federal dollars.
Gov. John Lynch talks with department heads yesterday in Concord about plans to lay off hundreds of state workers.
HHS Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas told his workers in an e-mail last week layoffs there will hit all operations, and will be separate from an additional $20 million in cuts the Legislature ordered him to make.
"There is no program or location not impacted directly or indirectly," he wrote. "The plan includes program closures, program changes, unfunding vacancies and layoffs. No one group is exempt from layoffs under the plan, whether executive, administrative or direct care positions, central office or district offices."
SEA and state negotiators exchanged e-mails yesterday on when to resume contract talks. No matter when negotiations pick up, Lynch said the layoffs will happen by month's end.
About 250 workers will get notices this week, he said. Another 60 will be transferred to lower-paying positions. Some vacant positions will be wiped out for other savings. Eventually legislative and judicial branch executives are expected to come up with $4.5 million in savings, Lynch said -- their share of the $25 million.
Speaker of the House Terie Norelli said she isn't considering layoffs.
"It would be our intent not to put jobs at risk, but to find savings in some other way," she said. About 140 people work for the Legislative branch.
Norelli and Senate President Sylvia Larsen were planning to match the SEA furloughs. Now they're looking at several other options. Norelli said yesterday was the first time she heard the $4.5 million figure Lynch cited.
Lynch originally said he would cut 750 jobs if SEA rejected a 19-day furlough plan. He said yesterday department heads found ways to cut fewer workers once they dug into specific situations.
"It's going to be a difficult time for the affected state employees," Lynch said, noting they will get job placement help. "The opportunity was there to avoid this situation."
SEA plans to bring back to the bargaining table proposals to avoid the cuts through use of last year's surplus, early retirements, four-day work weeks and elimination of expensive contractors.
Lynch said his team's analysis showed the proposals would not produce the savings.
Smith warned the job cuts will reverberate throughout the state, and SEA plans to pin the blame on Lynch.
"Things are going to fall off the track, services are going to go unprovided, kids are going to go unprotected, elderly are going to freeze. And we're going to be able to point back to it and say that didn't have to happen," Smith said.
The old contract, which expired on June 30, continues in effect. Smith said SEA legal counsel is researching whether Lynch has authority to transfer workers into lower-paid jobs. The Legislature eliminated a provision called "bumping rights," that allows senior workers whose jobs are cut to bump lower-ranking workers out of jobs for which they qualify. The rejected contract would have restored bumping rights.
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