More than 260 Nassau workers laid off

More than 260 Nassau workers received pink slips Thursday as the cash-strapped county continued to struggle with a projected $310 million budget deficit for 2012.

The layoffs, primarily affecting Civil Service Employees Association members at the lower rungs of the union pay scale, according to CSEA officials, occurred at roughly half of all county departments. They followed 137 demotions that took place Wednesday and will continue next week, officials said.

Throughout the morning, distraught employees, many carrying personal belongings and holding back tears, trickled out of the Department of Social Services office in Uniondale. Layoffs were effective immediately.

Laura Dermody of Merrick worked for the county for 10 years and at DSS for the past five as an alcohol-rehab counselor. A single mother with two children, Dermody said she expects to file for unemployment, food stamps and Medicaid.

"The process has been torturous," she said. "It's been very degrading."

CSEA president Jerry Laricchiuta said the 265 layoffs could have been avoided through a tax increase that would have cost the average household 25 cents per week.

"Today is a sad day . . . as we continue to watch the dismantling of Nassau County by this Republican administration," Laricchiuta said.

But Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said tax increases weren't an option.

"While it pains me to see anyone lose their job, I informed Nassau's unions months ago that layoffs would occur if they did not provide the concessions needed to protect residents from a tax hike and live within the dollars provided to us for the 2012 budget," Mangano said in a statement.

To avoid the layoffs, all 5,800 union members would have had to approve a 20 percent pay cut and a wage freeze through 2015, the union said. Laricchiuta said his members -- who make an average of $58,000 -- would not have approved the wage cuts.

Many laid-off workers said the process was handled without empathy. At DSS, employees received a phone call from Human Resources that directed them to an off-site administrative office to receive the bad news.

"It's just horrible," said Lauren Quigley of Seaford, who was let go from her job as a county assistant for DSS. "I am very upset."

Laricchiuta said the layoffs will leave Nassau services "in ruins," and suggested that snow removal will take longer and stretched probation officers will have less time to oversee individual felons.

"There was a time when Nassau County was the crown jewel of this state, if not the country," he said. "Today, I call Nassau County the embarrassment of New York State."

Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said Laricchiuta's "false allegations and last-minute scare tactics will not fool a single resident into believing that their property taxes should be increased to maintain the size of Nassau's workforce."

Denise Faulkner, a nurse who was laid off after 17 years with the health department, said she fears for clients she distributes tuberculosis medication to. "I have a regular clientele and they need their medicine," said Faulkner, 55, of East Norwich. Health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain said tuberculosis services will continue.

Departing workers predicted Nassau will save nothing because it will have to subsidize an increase in unemployment and other forms of public assistance for laid-off workers. "It's just unfair to everybody and it doesn't make any sense," Dermody said.

A total of 118 CSEA members have accepted a voluntary retirement package that will pay them $1,000 for every year of service -- saving Nassau $7 million while preserving roughly 150 jobs that otherwise would have been lost, according to the CSEA. Retirees have seven days after they submit paperwork to change their minds.