Superior Court Clerks Call In Sick Over Pay

In a protest over stalled salary talks, nearly half of the 271 clerks who staff the Los Angeles Superior Court system staged a sickout Thursday, causing minor disruptions in downtown and branch courts.

Superior Court executive officer Frank Zolin said that 128, or 47%, of the clerks either called in sick or simply failed to report for work without notifying court officials. Zolin said the gap in coverage was partially filled by supervisors and clerk trainees who were assigned to courtrooms where they were most needed.

Thursday’s sickout was the latest in a sporadic series of work actions that have marred labor relations with the county this year. Earlier this year, county nurses and doctors staged separate walkouts against public hospitals and health clinics to protest salary offers and working conditions.

And in the same courthouses last Dec. 14, more than 1,300 courthouse employees, including the clerks, joined in a one-day sickout that virtually paralyzed the Superior Court system. In the latest job action, many of those workers--who have since settled with the county--voiced their support for the Superior Court clerks in noontime demonstrations at several of the court’s 17 locations. Demonstrators called on the Board of Supervisors to bargain with the clerks in good faith.

Compared to the earlier work stoppages, Thursday’s sickout only mildly disrupted the normal business routine. Where replacements for absent clerks could not be found, Zolin said, judges were rescheduling trials and other proceedings. In some other cases, judges themselves were performing swearing-in and other duties normally handled by their clerks.

Some clerks who showed up for work Thursday said the sickout would have been more effective but for an apparent mix-up in communications.

Glenn Covey, a clerk at the Van Nuys Courthouse where all 20 clerks reported for work, said he received a call from his boss, Chief County Clerk Lou Hernandez, Wednesday night in which Hernandez told him that the sickout had been canceled because negotiations with the county were continuing. Covey said he had no reason to doubt Hernandez, so he and three other clerks spread the word and showed up.

Hernandez said he apparently had received erroneous information from one of his superiors and had no intention of interfering with the union’s plans.

Because the county will not negotiate during a work stoppage, “it made sense to me or I would never have made the call,” Hernandez said. “I am a former union president.”

Similar mix-ups apparently occurred at the Lancaster, Burbank, Pasadena and Inglewood courthouses, where all scheduled clerks reported for duty.

Hardest hit by the sickout were Superior Court branches in Santa Monica, Compton, Long Beach, San Fernando, Norwalk and Pomona.

The 275 clerks are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 36, one of 16 county employee groups that have yet to reach agreement with management over salary issues. Donald Deise, senior assistant chief administrative officer, said that workers in 38 job classifications representing more than 45,000 employees have reached at least a tentative settlement.

The Superior Court clerks and the county have been unable to reach agreement on a salary package the county said calls for a 9% pay raise, 2% of which would consist of a buyout of sick leave benefits. The clerks have demanded a 10% increase, with no loss of sick leave benefits.

Superior Court clerks receive from $26,760 to $33,218 annually.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Roxane Arnold, Ashley Dunn, Philipp Gollner, Tracey Kaplan, Lynn Steinberg and Tracy Wood.