Schwarzenegger orders mass layoffs

WASHINGTON: California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered mass layoffs and unpaid furloughs for state workers starting February to address the states' fiscal crisis.

Over two lakh employees will be compelled to take off two unpaid days every month through June 30, 2010. The managers will have to bear receiving either the furlough or an equivalent salary reduction during the same span, Los Angeles Times reported today.

The mandatory time off is the equivalent of about a 9 per cent pay cut for affected workers and the furloughs would save the state more than USD 1.2 billion, the report quoted HD Palmer, spokesman for Schwarzenegger's finance department as saying.

The number of people losing their jobs was unclear. Schwarzenegger had earlier also attempted to unilaterally reduce the pay of state employees, but nothing happened at that time as the state's payroll system was incapable of carrying it out.

The governor's order was, however, condemned by the officials of state employee unions, who vowed a legal challenge.

"Our state's fiscal crisis has worsened dramatically in the past few weeks without legislative action to address our budget crisis," the paper reported Schwarzenegger as saying in a letter to state employees yesterday, after he declared another fiscal emergency and called a new special session of the legislature.