City County Unions Agree to Furlough in Exchange for Raise
posted by on October 27 at 16:07 PM
King County Executive Ron Sims just announced that he has reached an agreement with KC union members, under which all county employees (including non-union employees, and excluding transit and safety staff) will take an unpaid furlough of ten days; in exchange, all county employees will receive a 4.88 percent cost-of-living raise. The furlough days would be adjacent to paid holidays—giving county employees, a series of four-day weekends, with one of the two days off unpaid. The furlough-pay raise combo should still result in higher pay overall (the furlough would reduce pay by about 3.8 percent, which works out to a 1.08 percent net pay increase); however, for salaried employees whose workload stays the same whether they’re paid or not, the “furlough” could just mean ten unpaid days of work per year.
The furloughs, offset by the raises, will save the county about $10 million per year.
I welcome the 35 hour workweek!
Personally, I'd rather have a 30 hour workweek, so that I'd only have to work 35 hours.
i already have the 37.5 hour work week.
I have the 27 hour work week and it suits me just fine.
"...however, for salaried employees whose workload stays the same whether they’re paid or not, the “furlough” could just mean ten unpaid days of work per year."
wtf does that mean?
It means you get f'ed in the a.
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday, for a job done this week.
--- Ron "Wimpy" Sims
Picture of Ron Sims at Lunch:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c301/resusme/wimpy.jpg
Actually, if they're salaried don't they get the same pay no matter what? I was under the impression that if your salary was X amount of dollars per year, you got paid X amount of dollars no matter how many hours you worked. My supervisors work 60 hours a week but get paid the same amount of money as if they worked 40 hours a week because they are paid X amount per year no matter how long they're actually there during the week. Salaried employees don't get overtime.
Get a non-profit job. You show up for 40 hours and spend 20 working, 10 reading Slog, and 10 on whatever you want. You'll start with 3 weeks of vacation to boot!
Oh, you will get paid a bit less. Try to marry a lovable doctor/lawyer/banker.
Taking ten days off is the same as losing a whole pay check. OUCH!
@9, shhh, don't give away our secrets so easy.
@8--salaried employees do work until they get there stuff done. and they're paid the same amount for the year, regardless of how many hours worked. but they still have an hourly rate assigned--that way if they have to take unpaid leave, there's a basis for calculating the accurate pay.
For salaried employees, in months in which there's a furlough day, they'll get paid for one less day. it's better than getting laid off, but it makes it harder to go motivate one's self to work on a weekend or holiday.
Salaried employees then have the opportunity to hoard their vacation days by taking time off on these furlough days instead and saving up for a very long vacation. Tell everyone in advance that you'll be gone for a month and they can muddle along without you. Speaking as someone who doesn't get enough time off, getting to take a long uninterrupted vacation sounds pretty nice.
@5 -- That means that most of the deputy prosecutors in my spouse's office will be at the office working on the "furlough" days; they just won't be getting paid. Oh yeah, they've starting turning off the lights and heating/cooling systems on nights, weekends, and holidays as well. When the chairs and desks go, it'll be time for the jump to the private sector.
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