The State Worker

A recently amended lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, Acosta v. Henning, seeks to end furloughs and restore lost pay to EDD and CUIAB employees as part of a remedy for what the plaintiffs contend are violations of the state constitution and state law because the government is slow to process unemployment benefits and adjudicate claim disputes.

Here's a key paragraph from the lawsuit:

... (The) Respondents' policies and practices ... delay processing and paying claims for unemployment insurance benefits ("UIB"). Among other things, Petitioners challenge Respondents (a) secondary identity verification system, on the grounds that it unfairly delays processing and paying claims and often results in unnecessary and costly administrative law hearings; (b) the delays in processing appeals when benefit claims have been denied; (c) exacerbation of processing delays as a result of the Respondents' imposition of furloughs and salary reductions on EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT("EDD") and CALIFORNIA UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE APPEALS BOARD ("CUIAB") employees even though (i) UIB programs are funded almost entirely through United States Department of Labor (USDOL) grants, the amount of which are based on the number of cases processed, and (ii) the EDD and CUIAB cannot and will not comply with federal requirements due to the unlawful furloughs ...

The lawsuit was filed in March 2008 and then added the furlough argument this year. When that happened, the state moved the defense from Attorney General Jerry Brown's office to an outside firm under contract to handle Schwarzenegger's furlough litigation, Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard.

"The AG's office has a conflict in these furlough cases, so that's why the change in representation," Lynelle Jolley said in an e-mail to The State Worker. (To read more about that conflict, click here.)

Acosta seeks several remedies, including immediate exemptions for EDD and CUIAB employees from furloughs that the petitioners say violate Article 14, Section 4 of the state constitution (click here to read the language) and Unemployment Insurance Code 318 (click here and scroll down to the applicable paragraph). The lawsuit also seeks "back pay with legal interest for any past reduction in salaries to CUIAB and EDD employees."

The amended petition, which you can view here, was filed Nov. 23. The court hasn't yet set a hearing date for the case.

Click this link to see this lawsuit and 24 others we're tracking on our Furlough Fights spreadsheet.

Thanks to blog user L for sending this our way.