ORANGE : Rejection of Pay Cuts to Hasten Layoffs

Classified employees in the Orange Unified School District have overwhelmingly turned down a proposed contract that would have reduced their salaries by 2.59%.

And as a result of the vote Wednesday night, the district will continue to proceed with the planned layoffs of 47 classified employees, said Jack Elsner, administrator of human resources for the district.

“My direction as of now is to move ahead with the layoffs, and that is what I will be doing,” Elsner said.

The contract was scuttled by a vote of 264 to 48 with one abstention, said Barbara Noble, president of the Orange chapter of the California School Employees Assn.

“The membership didn’t like the package the district wanted us to take, and they rejected it,” Noble said. “Most of them thought it was asking too much of us.”

Both sides plan to return to the bargaining table within the next few days with the assistance of a state mediator.

More than 60 classified employees have received notice within the past week of possible layoffs. Employees in targeted positions will be able to use seniority as a means of bumping employees lower down.

The 1,200 classified employees include child-care workers, clerical staff, library aides and school janitors. The classified employees earn a minimum of $5.37 an hour to a maximum of $17.14, depending on job classification and seniority.

Only 650 of the group are dues-paying members of the union and, therefore, eligible to vote in its elections.