State Rehires 80 Retirees
by Christine Stuart | Dec 1, 2011 6:30am
(5) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Labor, State Budget, State Capitol
When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration needed to refill 990 executive branch vacancies last month it decided it couldn’t do without the experience of 80 retirees.
Those 80 state employees, who will collect both a pension and a paycheck, are already back at work in many cases and will have 120 days to work before their contracts will need to be renewed by the administration.
According to administration documents, about 30 of the “temporary worker retirees” help plow Connecticut’s highways, repair vehicles, and fill the stockroom during the winter season. Several more are engineers at the Department of Transportation overseeing everything from bridges to highway design.
Five returned to the Department of Motor Vehicles and four were hired back by the Department of Emergency Services. Two, including a deputy commissioner and education bureau chief, were returned to the Education Department, while the Department of Developmental Services saw the return of 10 of its workers.
Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said in early October that with the rate of retirements, it was more than likely the state would look to hire back retirees.
“I anticipate there will be some use of TWRs, given that there were 650 retirements in one day and they were all senior people,” he said. “With a lot of people walking out the door at one time it sometimes make sense to keep somebody for a month or two while they work to find a replacement.”
The labor concessions agreement passed in August anticipated about 1,000 vacancies created by retirements to achieve $65 million of savings. But since the beginning of the year, more than 2,700 have retired. Barnes said there are currently about 3,500 vacancies in state government.
The flood of retirements was driven by concessions in the labor deal that made changes to the retirement benefits of state employees. The changes reduce their cost of living increases and increase the penalty for retiring early.
Former Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, authorized the rehiring of 509 executive branch retirees during her last year and a half in office. Most of the rehiring was necessary after the 2009 early retirement incentive, which saw 3,900 state workers retiree.
A 2009 executive order from Rell limits the use of retired workers to no more than two 120 day contracts. Barnes has said he imagines very few will be necessary beyond the first 120 days.
State employee unions are generally critical of the use of temporary retirees to fill permanent positions.
“It clearly makes more sense to fill vacancies with full-time public service workers,” Matt O’Connor, spokesman with CSEA/SEIU Local 2001, said in October.
However in the interest of maintaining service continuity in the midst of mass retirements the temporary workers policy may be practical so long as the arrangement is very brief, he added.
Tags: retirees, workers, rehire, employees, 120 days
(5) Comments
posted by: VanessaFas | December 1, 2011 1:41pm
What a foolish move. In a time when unemployment hovers between 7-10% in the state, to double-pay a retiree instead of hire an unemployed resident is almost criminal. The choice to allow, even sanction, ddouble-dipping is why most people hate government in the first place!
posted by: Disgruntled | December 1, 2011 5:18pm
Yup. In an environment of 3% raises these eighty lucky folks just doubled their pay! Dan just bought eight votes for the next election!
This administration can’t even get retirement done right! They only excel at talking,taxing and spending.
posted by: Noteworthy | December 2, 2011 1:42am
Stupid. In the face of $3 billion in tax hikes, the thought that we need to pay double dippers is lame.
posted by: perturbed | December 2, 2011 3:00am
“It clearly makes more sense to fill vacancies with full-time public service workers,” Matt O’Connor, spokesman with CSEA/SEIU Local 2001, said in October.
The sad thing for Matty-O’ and the rest of his SEIU buddies is they will soon be missing far more dues than just those lost to TWRs. When thousands more dues paying members escape the SEIU rule and join a different union—one which will allow member participation in the next SEBAC negotiations—there will be far fewer state workers left in SEUI Local 2001.
You got your health care pooling bill, Matty-O’, which you paid for with state workers’ pensions. But it will cost you losing the very same cash cows that you betrayed in the process. Was it worth it? I’m sure your municipal worker majority think so. I just wonder if you had taken into account all the dues you’d be losing when your state worker minority escapes your clutches.
Will you be attending the SBLR Petition Hearing at the State Labor Board, 38 Wolcott Hill Road, Wethersfield on Monday, December 19, 2011, from 1:30—4:30PM?
—perturbed
posted by: perturbed | December 2, 2011 3:03am
On the use of TWRs: they are fulfilling vital roles and are being welcomed back by those of us left behind to clean up after the mass exodus created by SEBAC’s secret deal with Malloy. Many of the recent retirees decided in only the last weeks, days, or even hours that they would be retiring before the October 1 deadline. That left far too little time for any semblance of a transition. At this point, with the work force gutted to the point of dysfunction, the TWRs are a welcome relief.
—perturbed