It\u2019s not the night before Christmas, but not a creature will be stirring in many state offices Friday. Employees can give thanks to budget cuts.<\/p>\n
The departments of Commerce and Law, the governor\u2019s office, state health lab, DMV offices, Permanent Fund Dividend offices, State Council on the Arts, DNR offices and Child Support Services Division will all be closed.<\/p>\n
Each employee will be given the day off \u2014 without pay. They\u2019re furloughed due to budget cuts negotiated with the state\u2019s largest public employee unions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome folks probably are not happy. Others … it may be a day they don\u2019t mind taking,\u201d said Jim Duncan, executive director of the Alaska State Employees Association.<\/p>\n
With about 8,300 members, ASEA is the largest state employee union.<\/p>\n
Last year, ASEA, the Alaska Public Employees Union and other state unions negotiated new contracts with the Alaska Department of Administration, which handles labor negotiations.<\/p>\n
Included in those contracts is a requirement that each employee take 15 hours of unpaid leave per year \u2014 the equivalent of two days\u2019 work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unions we bargained with last year understood the fiscal crisis the state is facing,\u201d said Sheldon Fisher, commissioner of the Department of Administration. \u201cFor the first time in most people\u2019s memory, members of the state\u2019s largest unions are taking 15 hours of furlough for the length of their contract. The unpaid furlough days will help the state save money \u2014 almost $7 million a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The furlough program is new for unionized employees, but some of the state\u2019s exempt and partially exempt employees have previously been required to take furlough days. In the Department of Administration and the Department of Law, non-union employees were furloughed on the day after Thanksgiving in 2015.<\/p>\n
This year is the first time unionized employees will be furloughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurloughs is a whole new concept,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the state\u2019s agreement with the unions, employees can individually select unpaid furlough days or \u2014 with two weeks\u2019 notice \u2014 the management of a department can announce a furlough day for all staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery case I\u2019m aware of, they have complied with the two weeks\u2019 notice,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n
If employees are within five years of retirement, they can exchange 22.5 hours of leave for the furlough requirement. Other employees have to take the unpaid time, though they can cash in leave time to make up for the missed earnings.<\/p>\n
Mara Rabinowitz, spokeswoman for the Alaska Court System, said even though the Department of Law will be closed on Friday, the court system will remain open in the morning for \u201ctime-sensitive proceedings\u201d such as arraignments, bail hearings and children who need aid.<\/p>\n
The court system is already working half-days on Fridays as a cost-cutting measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s not the night before Christmas, but not a creature will be stirring in many state offices Friday. Employees can give thanks to budget cuts. The departments of Commerce and Law, the governor\u2019s office, state health<\/a> lab, DMV offices, Permanent Fund Dividend offices, State Council on the Arts, DNR offices and Child Support Services Division […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":18457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18456"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}