EMPLOYMENT LAW: CA Supreme Court Upholds Worker Furloughs but Reject Absolute Power

October 5, 2010

San Francisco – The state Supreme Court has unanimously ruled in favor of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s furloughs and his vetoes of state spending that amounts to nearly $500 million, reports said.

In the ruling, the justices said the furlough was legal by virtue of ratification by the Legislature. However, the High Court has rejected the Governor’s claim of “authority to impose a mandatory unpaid furlough on state employees.

Under the furlough, employees were asked to take an unpaid leave two days a month, which was later extended to three days.

The Legislature did not directly approved the furlough but implicitly approved them in February 2009 through a bill that cut spending for employee pay by the same amount as proposed by the governor to save on mandatory off-days.