Anyone else going to furlough?

[MrsCat 6]

The final word on whether we're expected to show up for unpaid days of work is still out. . . . . . some are suggesting we have to show up, others are saying we just take a day off without pay. Gah.

HONOLULU – Describing a "fiscal emergency," Gov. Linda Lingle has ordered three days of unpaid furloughs each month for 14,500 state employees to help erase a $729 million budget shortfall.

The furloughs beginning in July amount to an almost 14 percent pay cut and will be unilateral, applying to the Republican governor herself and her staff.

The state will also restrict money for the semi-independent University of Hawaii, the state Department of Education and Hawaii Health Systems Corporation with hopes those agencies will also force their workers to take three unpaid days off each month, the governor said.

Lingle said Monday she also would ask the other branches of state government — the Legislative, judiciary and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs — to impose furloughs.

"This is a fiscal emergency that is unprecedented in size and scope," Lingle said in a statewide address. "We now have a government that we cannot afford."

While the order gives thousands of workers more time off for recreation, shopping and other economy-building activities, it will leave them with less money to pour into an economy that has experienced a sharp drop in consumer spending.

Leaders of state workers' unions immediately complained, saying an increase in the general excise tax should be considered instead. At least one labor leader, Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, warned he would consider challenging the furloughs in court.

"While the governor has suggested on a number of occasions, including today, that the problems we face are nobody's fault and beyond our control, she seems intent on having only government employees pay to get us out of the economic mess," Perreira said.

Roger K. Takabayashi, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said in a statement that public education would suffer because it will cut classroom time for students. "It will be difficult to recapture this lost learning later," he said.

Democratic legislative leaders questioned whether Lingle has the authority to order furloughs and suggested her plan may be vulnerable to a union lawsuit.

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat, said no state employee union has received a concrete offer from the governor's office during contract negotiations this year. To spring the furlough plan on workers now could amount to unfair bargaining, she said.

"To me, she has not bargained in good faith," Hanabusa said.

Still, Democrats offered no adamant opposition. And they said there was no need to call the Legislature into a special session to deal with the budget, at least not yet.

At a later press conference, Lingle said she didn't need legislative approval for the moves.

She said she weighed the economic downside of furloughing workers against laying off as many as 10,000 employees to generate the same savings. Republican legislative leaders agreed furloughs were the better option.

Lingle also said the number of furlough days could be reduced if state employee labor unions agree to wage and benefit cuts as part of new contracts, a concession she has been seeking for several months.

But state workers already face a nearly 24 percent rise in health insurance premium costs starting in July because Lingle has decided not to increase the dollar amount the state contributes toward those premiums, Perreira said.

"You add that to a just under 14 percent pay cut," he added, "and tell me how the average clerical person making $35,000 a year is supposed to make it?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090602/ap_on_...awaii_furloughs

Edited June 3, 2009 by MrsCat

[SuperDuper! 230]

Look at what Arnold has done to CA state workers....

[MrsCat 6]

Look at what Arnold has done to CA state workers....

What's happened there?

[SuperDuper! 230]

CA Furloughs

[MrsCat 6]

CA Furloughs

Boy that sucks for them.

Ours is 3 days/ month and for TWO YEARS. LOL

[katochan 0]

I haven't heard of anything like that happening here before.

Hopefully this is all for the good and everything goes back to normal.

I feel really lucky that I'm a federal worker.

[MrsCat 6]

I haven't heard of anything like that happening here before.

Hopefully this is all for the good and everything goes back to normal.

I feel really lucky that I'm a federal worker.

We're very lucky that my husband is a federal worker too - otherwise our rent might be a little short for a couple years.

[caybee 21]

My sister is taking furlough days for the state of South Carolina, but it's mandatory, unpaid leave; certainly no talk of having to come in and work without pay. I heard a news report the other day, on NPR I think, that more and more private companies are resorting to furloughs as well just to stay in business.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

NJ is doing it too. 1 day in May and 1 day in June of this year. No plans for anymore, but you never know.

And it's unpaid leave. You stay home, don't get paid.

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

CA Furloughs

Boy that sucks for them.

Ours is 3 days/ month and for TWO YEARS. LOL

jasman is in cali and getting forced time off too i believe.

[NickD 202]

Had a traffic delay yesterday, one city guy was running a concrete cutter with about 19 others dressed up in those safety and hard hats standing around and watching him. Would those other 19 guys be missed?

[mawilson 2,133]

Sounds great! Vacation, baby!

[thetreble 19]

NJ is doing it too. 1 day in May and 1 day in June of this year. No plans for anymore, but you never know.

And it's unpaid leave. You stay home, don't get paid.

I thought it was one day in may, one day in june, and the one day a month in 2010? or FY10?

[claudrie 0]

My husband had to take 80 hours of unpaid time off over the past four months and it may start all over again along with layoffs.

[almaty 19]

illinois is going through what calif. did..tjhere be major changes...my nephew is a warden at a prison in southern illinois and already has put in for sgt. at another prison..seeing that as more secure...