ORANGE : District, Union Talk but Jobs Still on Line

Negotiations between the Orange Unified School District and the union representing its classified employees resumed Friday, barely 12 hours after the board of trustees approved eliminating more than 40 classified positions.

The sides discussed possible salary cuts for all classified workers as a way of saving some or all of the targeted employees’ jobs, said Barbara Noble, president of the Orange chapter of the California School Employees Assn.

Even as the sides talked, school board officials prepared to send notices to more than 200 workers informing them that they might lose their jobs.

Jack Elsner, the district’s administrator of human resources, said the mass notification is necessary because employees in targeted jobs might have seniority rights that they can exercise to take over the jobs of other employees.

“Almost all those people have seniority over people in their (employment) class or other classes,” Elsner said. “They have seniority rights. Therefore, when a position is eliminated, they can exercise bumping rights in that class.”

The board in June had attempted to lower the wages of district employees by 4% in order to avoid layoffs.

But the Public Employees Relations Board ruled last month that the district could not take such unilateral action without consent from the classified employees.

Whether any employees are dismissed as a result of Thursday night’s vote hinges on negotiations between the district and the union, and what kind of agreement they reach on possible salary cuts or worker furloughs.

School board officials said approving the possible layoffs was necessary to ensure that the district had a balanced budget approved by today, but Noble argued that the board’s vote was not immediately necessary.

“I think it was premature,” Noble said. “They were ordered to bargain in good faith.”

Friday, representatives for the district and the union agreed that they had made progress toward settling the dispute.

“Progress is being made, but we’re not there yet,” Elsner said. “I really believe the attitude of the union is that they want to get it resolved.”

The next meeting of the district and the classified workers’ union is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.