California Judge Rules Against State Furloughs

The Alameda County Court in California has ruled that the furloughs for state employees violates state law. Gov. Judge Frank Roesch ruled that the forced days off required of most employees of state agencies were in violation of California law setting state employee work weeks at 40 hours.

Gov. Schwarzenegger initially ordered employees to be furloughed for two days a month, affecting 238,000 state employees, exempting only public safety workers. A second furlough order kept some employees of some state agencies from working three days a month. The estimated savings from the three day furlough plan was approximately $1.4 billion a year.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Judge Roesch cited that under California law, only individual agencies can limit workers hours, based on the specific needs of the agencies, so across the board furloughs, as ordered by the governor, was a violation.

Gov. Schwarzenegger is appealing the ruling to the California Supreme Court. The Chronicle is reporting that the ruling by Judge Roesch halts the furloughs while the issue makes its way through the courts.