State workers' union to file restraining order to stop layoffs
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By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: June 4, 2009
MONTPELIER – The union representing thousands of state workers will file for a restraining order today to stop the state government from laying off about 120 state workers.
The Vermont State Employees Association officials said they will ask a Washington County Superior Court judge to issue an emergency order to stop Gov. James Douglas' future layoff plans. Nearly 100 state employees are scheduled to work their last day Friday.
VSEA President Jes Kraus said language in the 2010 budget passed by the Vermont Legislature stops the Douglas administration from unilaterally cutting state job without first seeking approval from lawmakers.
Kraus said the union sent a letter to the administration this week asking them to rescind the upcoming layoffs based on the new budget.
"I asked several times to meet with the administration this week to avoid these lay-offs, but never heard back," Kraus said. "But this is now law and they have to follow it."
Secretary of Administration Neale Lunderville said Wednesday that he could not comment on the court case because the complaint was not yet filed. But he said the administration did everything it could to avoid state layoffs, including offering a plan earlier this year to cut wages and benefits to save money.
"This was never our first choice," Lunderville said.
A provision in the 2010 budget that requires Douglas to seek approval from the Joint Fiscal Committee, an off-session legislative body that makes budget decisions, before making any further job cuts has set off a war or words between the executive and legislative branches.
The Douglas administration – backed by an opinion from the Vermont Attorney General's Office – believes that provision violates the Vermont Constitution's separation of powers clause.
Lawmakers believe the wording is legally sound, but bowed to those concerns by amending that provision in a separate bill passed Wednesday during the second day of the special legislative session.
The new wording requires the Douglas administration to seek legislative approval if he plans to cut more than 1 percent of the state workforce – or about 80 of the approximately 8,000 state workers in Vermont.
Lunderville said Wednesday the administration is still looking at that new language. Dennise Casey, the governor's spokeswoman, said the new wording of the employee layoff provision was still an attempt by the Legislature to "micromanage the executive's responsibilities to manage state government."
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said he is worried about the implications of more layoffs. "We really are on the precipice of compromising the ability of state government to get the job done," he said.
He has heard, although not directly, that some members of the administration believe that the language dealing with state employee layoffs – even as amended – may be unconstitutional.
"We don't believe there are constitutional problems, but the administration seems to have some concerns," Shumlin said.
Sen. Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the language in the companion bill — modeled after legislation that forces the governor to seek legislative approval for rescission cuts — has already passed constitutional muster.
"We based this language on that model and believe it's constitutional," she said at floor debate Wednesday.
Bartlett said the Douglas administration, however, has a different take. Members of the administration, she says, indicated to her that they planned to bring the issue for judicial review.
"Yesterday their plan was to challenge this in court, and we said, 'we'll see you in court,'" she said. "Sometimes there are philosophical differences you just can't resolve, so we'll go ahead and resolve them in court if that's where we have to resolve them."
Reporters Peter Hirschfeld and Louis Porter contributed to this report.
daniel.barlow@rutland herald.com
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