Court workers offer unpaid work to reduce layoffs

The union that represents some of the Los Angeles Superior Court support staff facing layoffs on Friday offered to have workers go unpaid for one work day a month in lieu of the job reductions. The offer was rejected late Thursday, the Daily Journal reports tonight.

Starting Friday morning, the legal paper says, "the court will lay off 157 employees and shift another 108 from full-time to part-time status, as it seeks to cut $30 million from its budget.

"Officials with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union representing about 20 of the workers losing their jobs, said they offered furloughs in a Thursday meeting with court officials. In the meeting, union representatives told court officials that all of the roughly 1,300 AFSCME workers at the court would voluntarily work one day a month without pay to ensure no AFSCME members would lose their jobs.

An AFSCME source, who asked not to be identified due the sensitive nature of the layoffs, said court officials rejected the offer immediately."

The courts are facing deep cuts in staff and public services due to budget reductions coming down from Sacramento.