SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered mass layoffs and unpaid furloughs for state workers starting in February to address California's growing fiscal crisis.
Under his executive order, 238,000 employees will be forced to take off two unpaid days per month through June 30, 2010. Managers will receive either the furlough or an equivalent salary reduction during the same period.
H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Schwarzenegger's finance department, said the mandatory time off is the equivalent of about a 9% pay cut for affected workers. He said the furloughs would save the state more than $1.2 billion.
It is unclear how many people will lose their jobs. Palmer said each department will have to cut its payroll by 10% and will make its own decisions on how many workers must go.
Schwarzenegger attempted a few months ago to unilaterally reduce the pay of state employees, but his order never took effect. State Controller John Chiang said the state's payroll system was incapable of carrying it out.
Chiang did not comment on the viability of Schwarzenegger's new order, saying in a statement Friday that he had not seen the administration's implementation plan.
The governor's order was condemned by officials of state employee unions, who vowed a legal challenge. Democratic legislative leaders voiced angry disappointment but said they were willing to return to negotiations with the Republican governor to solve the state's financial problems.
A day after Schwarzenegger said he would veto an $18-billion package of cuts and new revenue adopted by the Legislature, he blamed lawmakers for the need to seek layoffs and other measures to reduce spending.
"Our state's fiscal crisis has worsened dramatically in the past few weeks without legislative action to address our budget crisis," Schwarzenegger said in a letter to state employees Friday, after he declared another fiscal emergency and called a new special session of the Legislature.
Lawmakers ended the previous special session Thursday with the passage of the $18-billion package forged by Democrats to shrink a $42-billion budget gap expected by mid-2010.
Schwarzenegger asked the personnel department to work with state agencies to initiate "layoffs, reductions and other efficiencies" starting Feb. 1.
Tens of thousands of employees, those in the bottom 20% of seniority, will receive "surplus" notices within the next month, said personnel officials, but not all who receive them will be laid off.
