AUGUSTA — The Maine State Employees Association has confirmed that more than a dozen state employees recently received layoff notices.

According to Ramona Welton, president of the union that represents most state workers, layoff notices were given to 10 Department of Health and Human Services employees on Tuesday of this week with end dates of Nov. 11.

The projected job losses break down as follows:

• Seven of the positions are in the Office of Child and Family Services. Five are contract quality control specialists, one is a contract specialist and the other is a resource coordinator team leader.
• Two of the layoffs were in the Office of Family Independence.
• The final layoff was in the Office of Aging and Disability Services.

According to the union, some of those employees could transfer to other positions or exercise “bumping rights,” which means they could move into a lower-level position, thereby displacing an employee with less seniority.

About two weeks ago, according to Welton, an additional six layoff notices were given to DHHS employees with an end date of today. Some of those positions were related to Gov. Paul LePage’s administration’s intention of privatizing the ASPIRE program, including closing the Calais office.

There are up to 51 ASPIRE positions on the chopping block. Layoff notices for those jobs went out in late August but had no end date. DHHS is working toward privatizing the ASPIRE program, which helps welfare recipients attain jobs, with a company called Fedcap. DHHS is close to signing a contract with Fedcap to do the work but the company will have a startup window that overlaps with the layoffs, according to Welton. That has created uncertainty in the workforce, she said.

“The effect is very much like tossing a stone into a pond and watching the ripples go out from the center,” she said. “Every employee, the family, the children, the community for every employee is affected.”

The overall impact on the number of state employees isn’t clear and the Department of Administrative and Financial Services and Department of Health and Human Services have not responded to questions from the Bangor Daily News from earlier this week.

The layoff notices come during a time of uncertainty for many state employees. LePage said over the summer that in his next biennial budget proposal, which is due in January, he intends to trim the number of positions in state government from about 11,000 now to about 9,500, though many of those positions are currently vacant.

LePage has long argued that the state budget is bloated because it funds hundreds of positions that have remained vacant for months or years.