Workers Fired for D-SNAP Fraud Will Get Jobs Back

State workers who were fired for alleged fraud for receiving federal aid from the D-SNAP program have been allowed to return to work according to the Hartford Courant.

AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano announced on Wednesday that  have been allowed to return to work and more are expected to be reinstated.

Most of the employees will return to work by the end of the month, 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 that a majority of his 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.