The Hawai'i Government Employees Association has filed a prohibited practices complaint against Gov. Linda Lingle and several of her department directors, claiming the state has not adequately consulted with the union on the layoffs of more than 1,100 state workers.

The complaint asks the Hawai'i Labor Relations Board to find that the governor and her directors have acted in bad faith and to prohibit the layoffs from going forward until the board is satisfied that the state has properly consulted with the union.

"We weren't consulted. We have concerns with how the RIFs were determined," Nora Nomura, the HGEA's deputy executive director, said of the reduction-in-force. "We didn't see any plans beforehand, so we really couldn't comment on them and that's why we have all these concerns about contracting out work and selecting people who are inappropriate for RIFs."

Russell Pang, a spokesman for Lingle, said the Lingle administration has declined to comment on the complaint filed last week.

The Lingle administration has provided the union with updated layoff guidelines and seniority information for the state workers targeted, to help determine bumping rights for senior workers.

But the union wants the administration to explain whether it considered alternatives to layoffs, including retirement incentives such as buyouts. Pang said the administration is considering allowing workers on the layoff list to retire at the end of the year rather than leave when the layoffs take effect Nov. 13.

The union wants to know whether exempt and temporary workers will be laid off before civil service workers. The union has also asked for the projected savings to the state from the layoffs.

The union has questioned why the administration has contracted out services to the private sector that are customarily done by state workers and has suggested that some workers were targeted for layoffs because of their union activity.

The Lingle administration has estimated a budget deficit of $786 million through June 2011 and wants to save $688 million through reductions in labor expenses.

The state and the four public-sector labor unions have not made much progress on new contract talks.

The HGEA and United Public Workers' public-safety worker units are headed toward binding arbitration hearings in September.