March 26, 2009
Other states seek employee givebacks
While unions continue to reject Governor David Paterson's demand for concessions to avert 8,900 layoffs, state employees across the nation are feeling the squeeze of declining tax revenues.
Paterson wants the union to forgo a scheduled 3 percent pay hike and agree to a one-week furlough, but so far the leaders of public employee unions have rejected the proposed givebacks. New York State faces a $16 billion budget gap for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
As reported in yesterday's NY Public Payroll Watch, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has threatened as many as 7,000 layoffs if the unions reject a wage freeze and furlough plan.
Elsewhere in the nation, state government workers face layoffs, furloughs, benefit cuts and wage freezes, Stateline.org reported earlier this month.
State employees, once thought to have one of the most secure jobs with the best benefits, are increasingly worried as the recession deepens and states look to trim their salaries to balance their budgets. In California, state workers are working two days a month without pay, part of a budget deal that averted many of the proposed 20,000 layoffs. Vermont's state employees union has offered to give up raises and take four unpaid work days, which the state says won't save enough money. (snip) Other governors' budgets are dependent on cutting positions through layoffs and attrition: 1,100 positions in Minnesota, 1,000 to 2,000 spots in Pennsylvania, and 1,300 in Missouri, for example. "We will cut nearly $200 million from overhead by eliminating these positions and cutting bureaucracy," Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) said in his state of the state address Jan. 27. "Make no mistake, I value our state workers, and these cuts will not be easy."
(snip) Dwarfing the layoff figures is the number of people being furloughed; so far at least 16 states have forced employees to take time off without pay, saying that option could stave off layoffs. Just among Arizona, California, Georgia and Maryland, well over 355,000 people have already taken unpaid leave, while Pennsylvania could soon add another 78,000 and New Jersey another 80,000 to that tally.
New Jersey's governor says state workers have to take unpaid days off or risk layoffs, Ohio's largest state workers' union has tentatively agreed for its members to take 10 unpaid days and Oregon's governor is telling the state employees' union that workers will have to take 26 days off in the current and next fiscal years.
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