Hartford – At least 328 state employees have been issued layoff notices in the first wave of the governor's Plan B for balancing Connecticut's budget without labor union concessions.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration released a list of the notices sent as of 10 a.m. this morning. Hundreds more pink slips will be given out over coming weeks, officials said. The administration has yet to confirm the total number of layoffs, previously estimated at 6,500.

The State Employees Bargaining Unit Coalition representing the 15 unions is now scheduled to vote Monday on changes to its strict bylaws that would apply to future labor agreements, according to a letter from one union president.

“As you know, the [previous] agreement failed ratification due to the stringent SEBAC by-laws,” Laila Mandour, president of the Administrative and Residual Union, wrote in the letter to her 3,300 members.

Malloy has balked at restarting serious discussions with the unions until they loosen the ratification requirements that 14 of 15 unions and 80 percent of all voting members approve a labor deal.

"You should expect many more hundreds over the coming days," Benjamin Barnes, the governor's budget chief, told reporters this afternoon. "The 6,500 number was an estimate early on – it may not be that number."

The Department of Correction will lose 222 workers under the layoffs plan, including 191 correction officers and 13 supervisors. Two state facilities, the Bergin Correctional Institution in Mansfield and the Enfield Correctional Institution in Enfield, are scheduled to close this year.

Some correction officers union officials have criticized the forthcoming layoffs and closings, warning of prison overcrowding and dangerously low inmate-to- guard ratios.

Malloy said on Tuesday that the reductions have "nothing to do with the budget," and were instead prompted by Connecticut's decreasing inmate population. There were 17,631 people incarcerated in the state's prisons on July 1, down from 19,216 on July 1, 2003, according to Department of Correction figures.

The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services will lose 89 workers and the Department of Construction Services will lose 14. Based on seniority, some union employees must leave work in two, four, six or eight weeks.

Malloy's Plan B calls for cutting $700 million in the first year of the state's new $40.5 billion biennial budget and $900 million in the second year. The budget-cutting scheme developed after unions representing 45,000 state workers voted down a concessions agreement with the governor worth $1.6 billion over two years.

The Malloy administration plans to release additional details of the coming layoffs and budget cuts on Thursday. It is required to submit the plan to Democratic leaders of the legislature by Friday.