Legal News

Pay cuts for state workers rejected -- for now

By Richard Binder

Judge Patrick Marlette of Sacramento County Superior Court denied an injunction sought by Governor Schwarzenegger to cut the pay of more than 200,000 state workers.

The governor has maintained, and two courts have agreed, that state law requires the reductions as California enters the third week of the fiscal year without a spending plan. The Schwarzenegger administration  intended to reduce the workers' pay to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

But state Controller John Chiang, who prints the paychecks, has insisted that he cannot implement the order because of the state's outdated computer system. The judge said that although Chiang was breaking state law by refusing to issue the smaller paychecks, Marlette could not discount the computer argument as "frivolous." He set a hearing for August to fully explore the matter.

Kaye Scholer partners Steven Rosenthal in the firm?s Washington, DC office, Marc Cohen of the Los Angeles office and Jay Waks of the New York office represented the State Controller.

Click here for the LA Times story.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).