The Lingle administration announced yesterday that about 650 state workers will lose their jobs to help the state reduce labor costs and close a budget deficit, down from the 1,100 originally targeted for layoffs last summer.

The mass layoffs, which start today, are the first for state workers in more than a decade and are intended to help the state with a projected budget deficit of more than $1 billion through June 2011.

Marie Laderta, the director of the state Department of Human Resources Development, said the difference between the original target and the workers who will actually lose their jobs is due to civil-service rights and decisions by some state workers to leave the state work force rather than face the layoff.

Laderta said Gov. Linda Lingle has suggested that a second round of layoffs is possible if state tax collections continue to decline and the state does not achieve enough savings through collective bargaining with labor unions.

Tax collections are off 10.9 percent through the first four months of the fiscal year, while the state is still in negotiations with two of the four public-sector unions — the United Public Workers and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association and the Hawaii State Teachers Association agreed to furloughs in new contracts to help avoid additional layoffs.

"We hope not to," Laderta said of further layoffs. "It all depends on what happens with the labor negotiations, as well. It's something in the future we cannot predict. We're doing the best we can."

Lingle has said she preferred furloughs to layoffs, in part because civil-service protections designed to preserve worker rights make layoffs cumbersome. Gov. Ben Cayetano, for example, wanted to lay off 1,300 state workers to help with a budget deficit in 1995 but only ended up laying off about 150 workers.

Lingle has said she hoped to save $30 million a year from the layoffs, but Laderta said the full savings will not be known until the state calculates the impact of early retirements, vacation payouts and unemployment insurance.

The Lingle administration said 84 nonunion workers will lose their jobs today and 384 union workers will be laid off next Friday. Another 181 union workers will be laid off before the end of the year.

State workers represented by public-sector unions have civil-service rights that allow them to avoid layoffs by bumping more junior colleagues, who in turn can bump others if they have seniority.

Workers with at least two years of seniority are eligible for department- and juris- diction -wide job searches before being laid off.

Some workers targeted for layoffs moved into vacant positions, while others left the state's workforce.

The Lingle administration is providing workers with information about unemployment insurance, job resources, healthcare coverage, food stamp availability and counseling services.

The HGEA, which represents many of the state workers losing their jobs, complained to the Hawai'i Labor Relations Board that the Lingle administration failed to properly consult with the union on the layoffs. The board ordered the administration in September to meaningfully consult with the union by providing, among other things, the criteria used in selecting workers for layoff.

Nora Nomura, the HGEA's deputy executive director, said the union is still consulting with certain state departments.

"The layoffs are certainly not something we are happy about, but we do recognize that it's within the employers' rights," she said in an e-mail.

"We have been talking with the affected employees to ensure that there are no contract violations — such as a situation where a position is not eliminated, and instead the department is outsourcing the work to a private vendor."