Nassau finds money to rehire 40 workers

Nassau County officials said Thursday they have found new grant money to rehire roughly 40 Department of Social Services employees who were laid off last week.

That department lost 106 employees in the Dec. 29 cuts, more than any other. Several laid-off employees complained that Nassau would gain only minimal savings because a significant portion of their salaries were subsidized by state and federal funds.

The county will tap grant funds it has recently identified to rehire about 40 workers, said Deputy County Executive Rob Walker. County operating funds will not be used for the rehires, which will occur within a few weeks, he said.

"We have done our due diligence and found new funding to bring back some workers," Walker said.

Civil Service Employees Association president Jerry Laricchiuta said, "Cuts at DSS were just too deep. DSS is ready to implode on itself." Walker said the county is "comfortable" with the cuts and that the department has sufficient resources and manpower.

Also Thursday, the county offered new details on the composition of last week's layoffs.

Of 264 total layoffs, 243 were CSEA members and 21 were appointive, non-union employees, including senior departmental officials in information technology and housing, Walker said. The departing ordinance employees were either laid off or quit in advance of their termination, he said.

Laricchiuta said the higher-paid employees should have borne more of the brunt of the layoffs. "So far, I have not seen any shared pain," he said. "It's just CSEA pain. And, you can't balance this entire mess on one union's back."

Walker said the administration has "shared the burden," cutting patronage jobs by 30 percent for savings of more than $15 million.

Walker also said Thursday that no decision has been made yet on whether to extend a voluntary retirement program that provided CSEA members with $1,000 for every year of service with Nassau. The program ended Dec. 29 but employees had until Thursday to rescind their retirement papers.

A total of 114 employees accepted the incentive, saving Nassau $7.3 million in labor costs and preserving roughly 150 jobs that otherwise would have been lost in a second round of layoffs, Walker said.

The legislature appropriated $20 million in borrowed funds for the incentive and termination pay. The layoffs and retirements cost the county about $30 million, although some of the money will be spent in 2013 and 2014. Departing workers had the option to be paid out over three years.

Meanwhile, even as some workers were being brought back, seven Traffic and Parking Violations Agency employees were laid off Thursday and three other workers were demoted, the union said. CSEA is contesting the moves.