With thousands of state employees expected to retire before July 1, 2022 and staffing levels across all state agencies stretched thin or beyond the breaking point, Council 4 members like Ana Lindley, Anthony Soto and Amanda Tower are sounding the alarm.
They are joining state employee union members across Connecticut in a campaign to urge Gov. Ned Lamont and state legislators to protect and expand critical public services. Their collective message: We need increased funding and higher staffing levels in order to ensure a strong future for Connecticut.
“Hundreds of staff are out on leave because they tested positive for coronavirus. Many of us are working mandatory double shifts several times a week. And we are burnt out,” Tower, a state correction officer, and members of Local 391, told the General Assembly’s Task Force to Study the State Workforce and Retiring Employees.
Tower also noted that the Department of Correction was already understaffed by about 400 front-line staff, with an additional 400 workers poised to retire in July.
In her testimony before the task force last month, Ana Lindley, Spanish Court Interpreter with the Judicial Branch Regional Vice President with AFSCME Local 749 (State Judicial Branch) echoed those same concerns about the impact of low staffing levels on public services.
Lindley noted that the number of full and part-time Spanish-language court interpreters had decreased from 35 to 20 over the last 10 years, despite an increase in the state’s Spanish-speaking population. This undercuts the pathway to justice for people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).
“Many [in the LEP population] are American citizens, yet they are treated like second class citizens, due to lack of adequate language access,” Lindley pointed out. “For example, their cases are often continued several times due to unavailability of interpreters. This inhibits the non-English speaker’s access to justice.”
Over the past several decades, the state workforce has been beaten down by staffing shortages and underfunding across state agencies. This trend has only escalated since the start of the pandemic, with a 7.6% decrease in staff from just July 2019 and July 2021.
This represents one of the largest reductions in the country, according to a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. This destruction of public services directly impacts people across Connecticut, particularly communities of color, during a period of time when reliance on public services is at an all-time high.
What’s more, approximately 8,000 to 12,000 employees – roughly 25% of the state workforce – are eligible to retire this spring, according to the Comptroller’s office. To date, 2,150 workers have retired or submitted their written intentions to retire by July 1.
“To call this is a crisis in public service delivery is an understatement,” said Council 4 Executive Director Jody Barr.
Union members like Soto, a Wage and Hour Investigator with the state Department of Labor and member of AFSCME Local 269, are bearing direct witness to the scope of the crisis.
His division investigates claims made by workers who are being financially exploited. Some may not be getting paid their hours worked. Some are not being paid minimum wage or overtime. Some are intentionally misclassified as an independent contractor so they cannot receive unemployment insurance or Social Security or workers’ compensation protections.
“When workers are financially exploited by unscrupulous employers, they deserve the means to recuperate lost wages and protect their rights,” Soto remarked during a Feb. 7 press conference sponsored by the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) and Recovery for All coalition. “Proper staffing in agencies like the Department of Labor benefits all workers and the business community. It’s a win for working people and our communities.”
When Soto started with DOL in 2014, his division had 39 staff members. That number is now 31, a decrease of nearly 26% that makes it more difficult to advocate for workers.
“Properly staffing our department would benefit workers and the business community. It would level the playing field and discourage businesses from cutting corners at the expense of the workforce,” he said.
Nayeli Garcia Romero reinforced Soto’s point during the SEBAC press conference. She is a community college student and worker who belongs to Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), a New Haven-based grass roots organization fighting for immigrant workers’ rights.
“Even before the pandemic occurred, immigrant workers have been suffering in dangerous workplaces where we are exploited,” Garcia said. “Unsafe workplaces are deadly. It's time for Connecticut to invest in the Department of Labor to make sure that all workers have rights at work.”
Lindley properly frames the staffing crisis not as a call for expenditures, but rather as an investment in the future.
“We should invest in training and retention of interpreters. We also need wage increases equivalent to the skills needed for the job, and to help attract new candidates. Ensuring the courts retain experienced interpreters and can attract new ones, is important so that everyone can have fair and equitable access to the court system,” she commented.
Viable alternatives for addressing a growing crisis that promise to preserve and protect the vital services already exist.
The solutions include those just called for in the report recommended by the aforementioned task force on the state workforce. The report, "Toolkit for Success: Planning, Retaining, and Diversifying a 21st Century State Workforce” provides a blueprint for a better future.
Tower emphasized, however, that the future is now.
“We were called ‘heroes’ last year. We keep being told to ‘just wait’ for positive change,” Tower said. “The time to wait and see has come and gone. It would take a miracle to solve this problem in a timely fashion. But any massive action to help recruit and retain staff is better than none.”
