Furloughs, Furloughs Everywhere

After declaring an impasse last week, it looks like the Governor and SEIU have come to an agreement:

Oregon state workers will take 10 to 14 unpaid furlough days during the next two years, under a tentative contract agreement announced Tuesday morning between the state and its two largest workers' unions.

The contract also calls for delaying a scheduled step pay increase for more than a year and deleting a second planned step increase, according to a joint release by Service Employees International Union Local 503 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 75.

As expected, there will be no cost-of-living pay increases for any workers during the 2009-11 biennium....

The final agreement represents a compromise on both sides. SEIU started negotiations by offering eight furlough days and a cost-of-living wage freeze. Kulongoski countered with a demand of 24 furlough days and a total wage freeze, including both cost-of-living and step increases.

The article goes on to note, in a comment I was going to make myself: "The settlements with AFSCME and SEIU will serve as a model for contracts with smaller state workers' unions, Gov. Ted Kulongoski said in a release Tuesday."

It's still not clear to anyone how furloughs might be applied to salaried faculty and staff, yet in anther story from the New York Times, that's exactly what members of the Cal-State faculty have agreed to do:

A union that represents 22,000 faculty members at California State University has agreed to two furlough days a month to help close a huge budget deficit at the 23-campus system, officials said Friday.

Members of the union, the California Faculty Association, voted for the furloughs, which amount to a 10 percent pay cut, over the coming academic year. The move was approved by 54 percent of 8,800 union members.

Union officials are still negotiating with system officials about how to carry out the furloughs, which are likely to result in fewer teaching days or administrative duties for faculty members, said John Travis, a professor who is chairman of the union’s bargaining committee.

The chancellor has called for nearly all of the system’s 47,000 employees to take unpaid leave two days a month as part of a plan to address a $584 million budget deficit caused by a 20 percent reduction in state financing. The furloughs could save up to $275 million.

Lots more to come, and I'll try to keep you up to date.

University of California Institutes Faculty Furloughs

Here's a grim report from the New York Times about massive cuts the UC system is currently absorbing as fall-out from that state's economic crisis. I will excerpt the piece relevant to AAUP's position, but the article details other cuts beyond these:

Systemwide, 724 staff members have been laid off, and there may be more, Mr. Yudof said, especially if unionized employees reject the furloughs.

The furloughs, to be implemented Sept. 1, will be systemwide, with some exceptions, including those whose jobs are fully financed by research grants.

“It’s important not to take money from enterprises that are really entrepreneurial,” Mr. Yudof said, “and it wouldn’t help us with our deficit. Maybe this will encourage people to be entrepreneurial and go out and get those grants.”
In response to urging from university employees, the furloughs are structured so that people who earn more take bigger pay cuts. Those earning less than $40,000 will have 11 furlough days, equivalent to a 4 percent pay cut, while those earning more than $240,000 will have 26 furlough days, which is about a 10 percent pay cut. Mr. Yudof said he expected that faculty members would not take furloughs on their teaching days.

The university may also close for some additional days, as other California offices have done.

Read the whole article here.

The Reality of Fuloughs

Those of us in Oregon have probably already done the math on furloughs, but this New York Times article spells it out explicitly:

Instead, Ms. Roberson has found herself working as hard as ever on most Fridays, and every other day of the week. Further, she has come to resent the very idea of a furlough more and more with each paycheck, every one 10 percent less than it used to be, as mandated by California’s budget cutters.

And she has taken off only about half of the time to which she is entitled.

“Sometimes it’s just too busy at work,” said Ms. Roberson, whose pay was cut in February as part of the state’s effort to close a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. “You start to feel guilty.”

So far, we have received no sense that furloughs are on the table for AAUP's membership. They don't work particularly well for salaried employees. And to his credit, when asked about this in may, Wim Wiewel didn't soft-pedal the impact. Cutting budgets means cutting salaries, he explained to a questioner, and whether we're talking about FTE reductions or furloughs, "what it means practically is that you'll have less money in your pocket." (That's the quote as I wrote it in my notes.)

But for our brothers and sisters in SEIU who will probably be taking furloughs, it's important to recognize what a bad compromise they are.

Some people take the time off but feel bad about doing so, out of loyalty to bosses and colleagues left to carry the workload. Others work quietly — and sometimes openly — through furloughs, because they fear for the long-term safety of their positions and hope their self-sacrifice impresses the management.

And some say the message from the management is unclear, leaving employees wondering: Is this real time off?

“I think it’s a joke,” said Roland Becht, who works at the California Department of Motor Vehicles in San Diego. (More than 200,000 state employees are supposed to have two furlough days each month.) “I’ve tried to schedule furlough time and was denied because we’re short-staffed.”

It's one thing to ask workers to take furlough days even while expecting them to accomplish the same amount of work. It's quite another thing when the expectation is that you won't even be allowed to take those days--or worse, that those who do will be punished down the line.

Furloughs and the Law

Six months ago, the word "furlough" was a hazy term that few of us understood or cared about. Today, we're vividly conscious of its meaning. And with that consciousness comes questions. Are these legal? How can they be implemented? MSNBC has a story that delves into this nicely (though raising as many questions as answers).

Clearly furloughs are anything but simple alternatives to layoffs. As a result of the recent furlough-mania, I’ve been getting many questions from readers about their rights:

• Can I be furloughed if I’m salaried?
• Can I file for unemployment insurance when I’m on furlough?
• What if I work a bit while on furlough?

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are not clear-cut, and some vary by state. Even getting guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor on furloughs has not been easy.

I repeatedly asked Labor Department officials, via telephone and e-mail, specific questions on furloughs and employee rights, and it took nearly a month to get a straight answer....

Furloughs and exempt employees
Administrative and professional employees who are exempt from overtime and paid a yearly salary can be furloughed, but there are restrictions on how furloughs can be conducted. (There are few, if any, restrictions on furloughing hourly workers.)

The way the nation’s labor laws are written, an employee who is exempt from overtime and covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act must be paid for a full week of work even if they do not work one or two days during that week.

So, if your employer asks you to work on Monday and Tuesday, but sends you home without pay for the rest of the week, under labor laws the employee could lose his or her exempt status, meaning, the worker would now be eligible for overtime....

Furloughs and unemployment benefits
It may sound counterintuitive, but even though you haven’t actually lost your job and you’re just on furlough, there’s a good chance you’re eligible for unemployment.

“The general rule is if you’re laid off for more than one week you can obtain unemployment,” Dixon says.

Furloughs and doing work
When you are furloughed, that means you do not work. It’s as simple as that. If your manager expects you to work when you’re out on furlough, whether you are salaried or hourly, you must be paid for your work....

Bottom line: Furloughs shouldn’t be an excuse for not paying workers what they’re owed. However, they may continue to be a necessary evil.

Read the whole article here.