New SEIU Lawsuit Raises Further Questions About Governor Schwarzenegger’s State Employee Wage Order

Regarding the state’s payroll system, which Chiang has commented (and testified) on saying that the system physically cannot be updated in any kind of timely manner to accommodate the breadth of changes to the payroll the Executive Order demands, Pierman said, “This Executive Order was issued and not a lot of instruction was given to the departments in how to execute it. So I’m not sure that the state payroll system is set up to be cutting those checks as fast as it is required to by the Executive Order.”

Pierman has been at the center of this litigation filed on behalf of SEIU members and the two previous legal actions filed last week. She commented that drafting and filing these legal actions has been hasty due to the fact that as more members come forward reporting personal, financial fallout affected by the Executive Order, the landscape of legal ramifications as a result of the Executive Orders is changing. As that landscape changes, Pierman is in frequent communication with members of the union. She said, “It’s heartbreaking, really. I mean I tell them to please trust that SEIU Local 1000 is doing absolutely everything we can to preserve their rights and we’re going to do our best to help them out in any way, shape, or form. Local 1000 is firmly behind them.”

“It is my understanding that there are workers out there who worked the month of July have not received pay as yet for the month of July and continue not to receive pay because the state of California didn’t plan properly for this Governor’s Executive Order,” said Paul Harris, another attorney representing SEIU Local 1000. “It was hasty, ill-planned, and ill-conceived and now the workers are suffering the brunt of that.” Aaron McLear, Press Secretary for the Governor, commented, “we anticipated obstacles, certain challenges.” McLear followed this up, saying the “Governor is confident this is what the state needed to do to save cash.”

Lynelle Jolley, Communications Director for the Department of Personal Administration, had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit nor spoken with legal council at the time of interview. She did comment, however, that the department “has every intention ensuring employees get all the money they’re due” and that the department is “following all the labor code provisions on this subject.” Jolley said claims that the department is not following Labor Code is inaccurate, and that “the cost savings of not having the employees on the payroll exceeds any penalities that might be due. This isn’t our first choice but we’re in a mode where we need to preserve cash.”

So, SEIU Local 1000 says Labor Code sections have been violated and the Department of Personnel Administration thinks otherwise. The Governor says he has the legal precedent under White v. Davis to reduce pay to federal minimum wage, and Chiang (wholeheartedly) thinks otherwise. The Governor also said we’re in a cash crisis (hence the Executive Order), and Chiang testified and has made public statements otherwise. In the middle of this debacle over legalities and fiscal analyses are state employees without jobs and without pay.

Yesterday, the Governor declared at his press conference that until a budget is sent to him, he will not only refuse to sign other legislation sent to him into law, but that he will go the extra step to veto them. 38 days into the new fiscal year, things aren’t looking too sunny in the good ‘ole Golden State.

Kyle Samia is a student at the University of California at San Diego who writes for the California Progress Report as part of an academic internship program with the University of California at Sacramento journalism program this summer.