AFSCME Council 13 Continues the Fight

     If the budget is not passed by the first part of July many Commonwealth employees, according to the governor, will be facing payless paydays.  The first payday affected will be for those employees who will be paid on July 17th. Those employees will receive payment for 7 days, and the employees whose payday falls on the 24th of July, will receive payment for only 2 days. The Governor's Office is telling employees to continue to work, and has assured them that once the budget is passed, all monies owed for the work performed will be paid. 

     Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, Pennsylvania experienced a similar crisis and at one point a budget was not adopted until August.  Employees continued to work when the budget was late and the term "payless paydays"  was coined to refer to employees who continued to work but were not paid on their regular payday.   Once the budget was finally adopted, all employees were paid in full. 

     As a result of the payless payday issue and our belief that employees must be paid on time for work performed, AFSCME filed a lawsuit in 1991 and a 2nd suit in 1993.  In the first, it was determined that if the budget was not passed on time, employees must be paid for work performed up to and including June 30th, even though the paycheck would not arrive until after July 1st.  In the second lawsuit, it was determined that the Fair Labor Standards Act required that employees who worked be paid, notwithstanding the mandates of the Pennsylvania Constitution.  

     Last year, when the governor again announced plans to furlough "non-critical" employees in the event the budget was late, AFSCME C13 filed a lawsuit arguing that if the governor could decide who was "critical and non-critical", he could make all employees "critical" and continue to pay everyone. 

     Much to everyone's surprise, the judge who heard the case overruled the decision that said the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act overrides  the Pennsylvania Constitution. She went on to say that the governor could not spend any money in the absence of a budget.  Therefore, the Commonwealth  could not pay any employees, whether they were considered "critical" or "non-critical", and it would not be a violation of the law for employees to continue to work and not get paid until a budget is adopted.  AFSCME strongly disagrees.

      AFSCME C13 believes that the decision was wrong and we have already appealed it to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. We are waiting for a response from the Supreme Court, but as of today there has been no ruling.  Payless paydays, furloughs -- whatever they call it -- these are wrongheaded approaches to solving the budget and we will request an expedited decision from the Supreme Court, but that is ultimately the Court's decision.

      That leaves us with the potential for "payless paydays" once again.   Although "payless paydays" will be a substantial hardship on virtually everyone affected, the promise of future payment for work completed is preferable to a furlough where those furloughed would lose money permanently for the duration of the furlough. 

      We have been advised that the Legislature has added 2 days to their calendar, June 27th and June 28th, which could be considered a positive sign.  We encourage everyone to continue to call, write, e-mail and visit your legislators and tell them to get the budget done on time -- or to pass a supplemental appropriations bill which would authorize continued payment of state employees' salaries.