DPA: Accrued furlough hours no longer have expiration date

By Jon Ortiz, Sacbee -- Furlough time that state workers have on the books can now stay in the bank indefinitely, according to a memo issued Thursday by the Department of Personnel Administration.

PML 2010-015 outlines the well-known details of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest furlough order: The policy reduces state workers' pay by an amount equal to three days per month with most employees taking off commensurate time off the second, third and fourth Fridays. Several departments, union bargaining units and a few employee classifications also are exempt.

Then, at the bottom of the second page, this two-line paragraph:

Furlough hours cannot be cashed out. Effective immediately, there is no longer an expiration date to previously accrued furlough hours.

You can read the DPA memo by 100806 PML 2010-015.pdf.

Until now, furlough time off carried past June 30, 2012 would be lost. That aspect of the policy had opened the administration to charges that "self-directed" furloughs were a de facto pay cut for state workers such as correctional officers and psychiatric technicians. Under earlier furlough plans, they had to work full schedules and take the pay hit with the possibility that their facility's workload might not allow them to take the time off before the expiration date.[continue reading on Sacbee...]