San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal on Monday reversed a lower court's ruling on furloughs, dealing another setback to state labor unions' efforts to claw back millions of dollars in pay their members lost.
The appellate court's decision in Brown v. Superior Court of Alameda County was a blow for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which had argued the policy was an illegal pay cut for its 32,000 or so members.
The union said in a memo to members that it's deciding whether to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court.
CCPOA successfully petitioned an Alameda Superior Court judge in 2009 that "self-directed" furloughs, which cut prison officers' pay but deferred the corresponding time off, unlawfully forced them to work for free. The union didn't offer how much it would cost to make its furloughed members whole, but it would undoubtedly be millions of dollars.
The case bogged down last year while attorneys for the union and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger argued over whether the trial court decision could be appealed.
Other cases grabbed the legal limelight, culminating in a California Supreme Court ruling in October 2010 that state lawmakers had made furloughs legal by assuming the payroll savings in budget legislation.
Monday's opinion by appellate court justices James A. Richman, J. Anthony Kline and James R. Lambden relied on that legal precedent. They also said that it's "premature" to argue that officers worked for free until they leave service with furlough time on the books.
The justices then told the Alameda court to recall its decision in favor of CCPOA and to issue a new order denying the union's petition.
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