Calif. Supreme Court to post decision Monday on Schwarzenegger’s state employee furloughs

Calif. high court to post furlough decision Monday

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court will release its much-anticipated ruling Monday about whether the governor has the authority to furlough state workers.

Government employee unions have been challenging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s order since he first implemented two-day-a-month furloughs for more than 200,000 state workers in February 2009. He later expanded it to three days a month, which has translated to about a 14 percent pay cut.

Schwarzenegger said the move was intended to save money as California faced a severe budget crisis. His order has led to more than two dozen lawsuits.

The seven-member high court consolidated appeals by the Service Employees International Union Local 1000; the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment; and the Professional Engineers in California Government.

State and labor attorneys made arguments during a hearing in San Francisco last month.

It’s not clear whether employees would be entitled to back pay if the court sides with them. The governor maintains he was acting within his rights to deal with a budget crisis, but labor attorneys say he violated collective-bargaining law.

The justices heard arguments surrounding two questions: Does the governor have the authority to furlough through his executive order powers, and how does the Legislature’s enactment of recent budgets containing reduced pay impact the governor’s furlough order?

They also asked union attorneys whether the governor’s furlough order was a less severe response to the state’s cash crisis than laying off workers.

An initial round of furloughs ended in June, but the governor brought back furloughs in late July while the state deals with its current $19 billion deficit. An Alameda County Superior Court judge had issued a temporary restraining order preventing the governor from implementing furloughs, but the Supreme Court has allowed furloughs to resume while it makes a decision.

The new order exempts departments that collect revenue, such as the Franchise Tax Board, and provide public safety protection, including the California Highway Patrol.

It also exempts about 37,000 workers in six unions that recently reached tentative labor agreements with the administration. The six unions are:

—Union of American Physicians and Dentists

—International Union of Operating Engineers

—California Association of Highway Patrolmen

—California Department of Forestry Firefighters

—California Association of Psychiatric Technicians

—American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

Those unions agreed for their members to contribute more of their salaries toward their pension benefits and to take one day of unpaid personal leave a month, the equivalent of a nearly 5 percent pay cut.