Last California state worker union reaches pay cut deal with Newsom administration

The one California state worker union that didn’t make a pay-cut deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration by a deadline this month has reached an agreement.

A group of about 900 employees who maintain heating and air conditioning equipment in state buildings will take a pay cut of about 5.3% and receive two flexible days off in exchange.

The two-year agreement uses the personal leave program the rest of the state’s unions agreed to by July 1, a deadline set in legislation.

It reduces base pay by what workers earn in two days minus what they normally pay into a fund for retirement health care. Payments into the fund are suspended under the program. For the group of HVAC workers, represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers, the health care suspension reduces the pay cut from 9.23% to about 5.3%.

Legislators and Newsom passed pay-cut legislation in June that mandated furloughs for workers whose unions didn’t reach agreements by the July 1 deadline. The furlough promise provided an incentive for unions to negotiate deals and get the health care suspension.

The mandated furloughs technically took effect for the HVAC workers, along with three other unions that had reached agreements but hadn’t fully ratified the deals by the deadline. But the state Human Resources Department set terms for the mandatory furloughs that were identical to the personal leave program, so most workers won’t notice a difference.

The recent agreement, like the others, suspends raises that workers were set to receive over the next two years. It also includes provisions that could undo the reductions if the federal government sends enough state aid to California.

This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Last California state worker union reaches pay cut deal with Newsom administration."