Guv announces 3,500 state worker layoffs

Mental health workers will experience the most layoffs of any state agency after union members voted down a proposed contract, according to a list of nearly 3,500 firings released by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

The Department of Mental Health cut 643 jobs out of a full-time-equivalent workforce of 15,256, the governor's office and budget office said Wednesday. Layoff notices started going out Wednesday.

On Tuesday, members of the New York State Public Employees Federation rejected an agreement negotiated between union leaders and Cuomo's office.

The proposed contract for the second largest state-employee union, representing 56,000 professional and technical white-collar employees, would have frozen salaries, increased employee health care costs and included unpaid furloughs. Citing the state's budget problems and rising workforce costs, Cuomo responded by announcing the layoffs.

"We have asked the governor to come back to the table, we've asked the governor to suspend the layoffs," PEF spokeswoman Darcy Wells said Wednesday. "We want to try to reach an agreement our members will ratify."

However, Wells said a revote was unlikely at this point. "We don't have any reason to believe our members would vote differently," she said.

Other agencies experiencing large cuts include the Department of Corrections, with 446 layoffs; the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, with 386 layoffs, and the Department of Transportation, with 361.

While Cuomo's office and the budget office worked with agencies to ensure that health and safety won't be impacted, they still have to meet targets for personnel savings, Division of Budget spokesman Morris Peters said.

For agencies with large numbers of PEF employees, that means bigger job cuts.

The total state workforce comprised 185,460 full-time equivalent jobs before the cuts.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto indicated Wednesday that the administration's opposition to further negotiations hadn't changed since announcing layoffs Tuesday.