Lawyers for the state and a coalition of state employee unions have negotiated a settlement of the unions' long-running federal lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of more than 2,500 unionized workers who were laid off in 2003 by then-Gov. John G. Rowland, according to a labor official. 

"This settlement brings to a close the dark chapter in our state's history when Connecticut was led by Rowland, a man with no respect for the law," Dave Glidden, executive director of CSEA SEIU Local 2001, wrote to affected union members in a Saturday email.  The Courant obtained a copy of the email Monday. 

"At long last, [the] fight has come to an end; we have prevailed in our fight for justice," Glidden wrote. " Details of the settlement will be coming out next week and CSEA will work to get impacted members the most up to date information as it is made available." 

Glidden could not be reached for comment late Monday. 

The office of Attorney General George Jepsen, which had been negotiating for more than a year with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), declined comment Monday on Glidden's email and the reported settlement. 

Although negotiations are concluded, the settlement of the 12-year-old suit isn't final.  First, the General Assembly would need to consider it.  It could be rejected by a 60 percent "super majority" in the House and Senate, which are both controlled by Democrats, as is the governor's office.  Absent such a rejection, the settlement would be submitted for final approval in U.S. District Court. 

Jepsen, also a Democrat, announced in December 2013 that he was suspending an effort to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling against the state by a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in May of that year, and instead said he would try to limit the state's exposure to damages by seeking to negotiate a settlement with SEBAC. 

Speculation was that the state was facing at least tens of millions in damages, and Jepsen said at the time that even if negotiations succeeded, any settlement would still be "a big number" that might invite political criticism. 

Financial details of the settlement were unavailable Monday, but sources said that it was intended to reduce the damages from what the court might have ordered if the case were left to a judge and to limit the immediate effect on the state budget. 

In its May 2013 ruling, the Second Circuit appeals panel unanimously reversed a 2011 U.S. District Court decision that had favored the state.  The panel upheld SEBAC's claim that Rowland, his budget chief, Marc Ryan, and the state acted illegally by targeting union members for layoffs while sparing non-union employees.  The panel sent the case back to the local U.S. District Court in Connecticut to decide what damages the state must pay to the unionized employees. 

Many of those employees got their jobs back after filing labor grievances.  But SEBAC lawyers argued that even employees who weren't laid off were affected, for example, by being "bumped" from their jobs as a consequence of the layoffs.  SEBAC also claimed Rowland's action violated the First Amendment rights of the 37,000 or so the unionized employees that it represented, saying, among other things, that the workers' ability to petition the government and conduct political activity had been chilled. 

The case has cost taxpayers about $1 million in payments to outside law firms that have defended the state and Rowland.