AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano announced on Wednesday that to replace spoiled food after Tropical Storm Irene when they weren't qualified have been allowed to return to work and more are expected to be reinstated, according to the Hartford Courant.
Most of the employees will return to work on June 29, but are not expected to receive back pay for their suspensions. Attorney Rich Rochlin, who represented some of the accused employees, told the Courant that he expects 56 of his 60 clients will get their jobs back or are in the process of being reinstated.
When the cases were sent to an independent arbitrator, it was found that mistakes were made on most of the D-SNAP applications and that the fraud was unintentional, according to a statement released by Luciano. The employees will instead receive 15-20 days of disciplinary suspension.
Malloy spokesman Andrew Doba told the Courant that the Office of Labor Relations has been instructed to review each of the arbitrator's decisions to see if there are any legal grounds for appeal.
Malloy that auditors would be hired to investigate whether state workers committed D-SNAP fraud.
