(10-04) 10:57 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court upheld Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s furloughs of 200,000 state employees today, saying the Legislature had ratified his decision to order workers to take three days off each month without pay.
A lower court had ruled that Schwarzenegger’s furlough orders in February and July 2009 violated state laws and union contracts that protected employee workweeks. That ruling, if upheld, could have entitled workers to more than $1 billion in back pay and interest.
But the state’s high court ruled unanimously that lawmakers gave the governor the powers he needed in a February 2009 fiscal bill that cut spending for employee pay by exactly the amount that Schwarzenegger proposed to save with furloughs.
Full Story: State high court upholds worker furloughs