County Employees May Face Work Without Pay

Los Angeles County is considering a plan to require its 85,000 employees to work without pay for up to two days a month for the next two years to prop up a budget that is $2 billion in the red and expected to get worse.

The plan, which must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and county employees’ unions, could save about $300 million a year, according to a report from Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon.

“While I do not recommend, and this county has never embraced, a policy of balancing its budget on the backs of its employees, today’s severe economic stress and critical budget problems suggest that all segments of the county family . . . must share in some degree of sacrifice,” Dixon wrote.

The plan, which would represent nearly a 10% cut in pay, is intended to give the supervisors maximum flexibility as they prepare for budget deliberations beginning July 28, Dixon said.

The proposed budget calls for making cuts in virtually every corner of county government, taking heavy tolls on the Sheriff’s, Welfare, Health, Parks and Recreation and Beaches and Harbor departments. Layoffs could occur in several departments.

Although the fiscal year began July 1, the 1992-93 budget is still unresolved. The proposed budget eliminates the county’s innovative probation camp system, slashes scores of middle-management jobs, closes parks and museums and shortens library hours.

Although there is no formal recommendation to impose the days-off program at this time, Dixon said, “I believe it is likely we will need to recommend such a program.” Despite the plan, most county employees are scheduled to receive about a 3% raise this year.

Dixon has begun a series of meetings with county department heads and union officials in preparation for the program.

Department of Public Social Services Director Eddy Tanaka, who met with Dixon and other department heads Thursday, said: “We’ve got a major shortfall in the budget. If this works, it’s a heck of a lot better than layoffs.”

But union officials criticized the proposal.

Ron Azlin, general manager of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, said “any solution should not come off the backs of workers. . . . They should eliminate waste before going to employees.” Azlin said union officials want to see the final budget shortfall before agreeing to a salary reduction plan.

Union officials were told that the program is expected to begin Sept. 1 and continue through June, 1994.

Dixon did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment.

But in a letter to the Board of Supervisors dated July 8, Dixon said the proposal was modeled after the state government’s Pay Suspension Program.

The state has adopted, and a majority of the unions have approved, an 18-month program under which employees work without pay for one day a month, representing a 4.6% pay cut. They will receive a equal number of paid days off later or a lump sum payment upon leaving state service.

At the county, the supervisors could apply the program to management and non-union employees, but county elected officials would have to be asked to voluntarily take the pay cut. And the program would have to be negotiated with unions representing most county employees.