Court backs state worker pay cuts, Chiang will appeal
A California appellate court on Friday backed the Schwarzenegger administration’s attempt to cut pay for 240,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage until a state budget is signed — but it doesn’t look like the order will take effect any time soon.
This is the second time the governor has attempted to take this action and state Controller John Chiang is balking again.
The ruling comes a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger again ordered the pay cut until this year’s budget is signed, but it’s unclear whether it will be implemented any time soon.
Friday’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed two years ago, when Schwarzenegger first attempted to cut state worker pay while lawmakers debated a budget fix. Chiang, who issues state checks, refused to comply with the order, citing the state’s outdated computer systems.
The administration sued and won at the trial court level, but Chiang appealed and the order was never implemented. The Third District Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court Friday.
“We … conclude the Department of Personnel Administration has the authority to direct the controller to defer salary payments in excess of federally-mandated minimum wages when appropriations for the salaries are lacking due to a budget impasse,” the ruling states check cash advance.
If the controller disagrees, he “may seek judicial resolution in court but may not simply disregard the DPA directive,” the appeals court concludes.
Chiang is going back to court, he said in a statement Friday.
“This is not a simple software problem. Reducing pay and then restoring it in a timely manner once a budget is enacted cannot be done without gross violations of law unless and until the state completes its overhaul of the state payroll system and payroll laws are changed,” he said in a news release.
“I will move quickly to ask the courts to definitively resolve the issue of whether our current payroll system is capable of complying with the minimum wage order in a way that protects taxpayers from billions of dollars in fine and penalties.”
The next step: The California Supreme Court.
Schwarzenegger has cited a 2003 state Supreme Court as grounds for the move, but Chiang argues it never addressed the feasibility issue.
“It would be highly unusual for the California Supreme Court to overturn its own decision,” countered Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear in a news release.