Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration continued to issue layoff notices Tuesday to state employees, serving pink slips to clerical staff in the Department of Social Services, according to a source close to the affected workers.

It was not clear immediately how many pink slips were issued early Tuesday afternoon.

But the governor, whose administration began serving notices Monday, has warned repeatedly it is a complicated legal process and therefore probably would take several weeks to complete.

The administration served a total of 165 notices Monday to workers in the Department of Children and Families — including those at Connecticut Juvenile Training School — and at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

One of state government’s largest departments, Social Services has been criticized by legislators, union leaders and social services advocates for years for being understaffed.

The department, which has about 1,800 full-time employees, faced two federal class-action lawsuits in recent years alleging that it had failed to meet federal timeliness standards for processing applications for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — the program formerly known as food stamps.

One of the suits tied delays in processing Medicaid applications — which the lawsuit said left people who qualified for the program going months without needed care and medications — to a shortage of staff in the department.

As part of a 2014 settlement, the state agreed to meet certain benchmarks for timely application processing.

Although the settlement did not require specific staffing levels, the department determined it would need to hire additional workers to comply.

"This is a difficult process — for state government and for all of our employees,” Malloy said Monday. “But it’s one that nevertheless must occur as we adapt to our new economic reality. State government cannot provide all the services it has always delivered.”

Monday’s layoffs prompted sharp criticism from state employee union leaders.

“I think it’s disgraceful that our governor is playing political football with the lives of dedicated public service workers,” said Linette Gaunichaux, a unit supervisor at the juvenile training school and a member of the executive board of AFSCME Local 2663.

Keith M. Phaneuf and Arielle Levin Becker are reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (www.ctmirror.org). Copyright 2015 © The Connecticut Mirror.

kphaneuf@ctmirror.org

alevinbecker@ctmirror.org