Child support workers face layoff

By Peter H. Milliken | April 3, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Grievances have been filed over the layoffs of union members.

YOUNGSTOWN — Three Mahoning County Child Support Enforcement Agency supervisors belonging to Teamsters Local 377 will be laid off, effective Monday.

Judee L. Genetin, director of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, of which CSEA is a part, said those being laid off were notified last month, and that one of them has worked for the county for 30 years.

“They’re temporary until the budget gets better,” Genetin said of the furloughs.

The layoff notices were issued because JFS and the Teamsters’ union failed to reach an agreement on concessions, Genetin said.

“We’re attempting to find if there are any kind of safe-landing positions available for them, but, right now, the budget’s extremely tight,” Genetin said.

Those being laid off may bid on several lower level positions in the department’s income maintenance section, Genetin said, declining to name the people being laid off.

The Teamsters union represents 14 people at CSEA, 10 of them supervisors, and four of them lawyers. The Teamsters earn between $44,158 and $65,707 a year.

The 60-member American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 3577, which represents CSEA’s non-supervisory workers, has agreed to concessions, including an unpaid “floating holiday” in every two-week pay period, and no layoffs are now planned in that local, Genetin said.

In the “floating holiday” rotation, 25 percent of the workers will be off the job on each Monday and Friday in each pay period, Genetin explained.

The AFSCME unit also agreed to a reorganization of agency staff to make its operation more efficient, she said. By taking the concessions, that union avoided layoffs, she said.

Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners, has urged county departments to adopt “floating holidays” as a way to maintain county services while minimizing layoffs.

Sam Prosser, Teamsters Local 377 president, said the 10 child-support enforcement supervisors unanimously agreed to the same “floating holiday” arrangement as AFSCME, but JFS management did not accept that. He added that grievances have been filed concerning the layoffs.

The three layoffs will produce the $163,000 in savings JFS needs from the Teamsters between now and the end of the year, Genetin said, adding that the “floating holiday” every pay period in that group wouldn’t have produced that amount of savings.

Genetin said she proposed the three layoffs and said she was open to suggestions of other concessions that would equal $163,000 in savings.

In each union, “We projected how many staff it would take to maintain services for clients,” Genetin said.

In the top JFS management, which is not unionized, Genetin said the department has cut $400,000 in annual salary and benefit costs by not replacing those who have resigned in the last two years.

George J. Tablack, county administrator and budget director, noted that JFS has had a hiring freeze since January 2008. JFS employs about 300 people.

County officials have discussed the prospect of layoffs at JFS over the past year due to a $5 million combined loss of state and federal funding over the past two years.

In February, the financial crunch forced JFS to terminate many contracts with community agencies, for services such as truancy intervention, job training and legal services to poor people, to achieve $850,000 in savings.

All three Mahoning County commissioners declined to comment Thursday on the layoffs at JFS.