Schwarzenegger

More than 500 Glendale workers set to lose their jobs

November 22, 2011

November 16, 2011 | 4:32 p.m.

California’s largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance plans to lay off more than 500 employees in Glendale next year — part of an overall strategy to cut up to 1,800 jobs statewide.

The government-controlled State Compensation Insurance Fund had planned to reduce expenses through negotiated concessions, consolidating offices and relocating thousands of workers, but officials said a drop in premiums paid by client companies forced the more drastic action.  Read more...

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C.A. Rules Governor Cannot Order Furlough of Insurance Fund Workers

May 6, 2011
The First District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday for the second time that the governor may not impose mandatory furloughs on employees of the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

Last March, Div. Three upheld a decision by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch granting a petition for writ of mandate prohibiting then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from reducing the number of hours worked by SCIF employees.   Read more...

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Appeals court affirms State Fund furlough decision

May 5, 2011
San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally furloughed State Compensation Insurance Fund employees.  Read more...
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Jerry Brown makes deal with lawyers' union

March 8, 2011
Gov. Jerry Brown and the union representing the state's attorneys and other legal professionals on Monday night reached a tentative contract agreement with immediate pay and pension concessions and a few gains for labor.

Like most of the contracts negotiated with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the CASE deal also includes one day of unpaid leave per month for 12 months except for about 500 members who work for the State Compensation Insurance Fund. The courts have found that furloughing those employees is illegal.  Read more...

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Schwarzenegger's attorney files furlough appeal argument

December 8, 2010
An attorney representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger argued in a Tuesday letter to an appellate court that State Compensation Fund Employees were legally furloughed last year.   Read more...
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Schwarzenegger approves funding for energy efficiency improvements; SCIF affected

October 13, 2010
The effort to revive a home energy efficiency financing program that stalled this summer has a new recruit: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

AB 1873 authorizes state agencies including the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the Pooled Money Investment Board and the State Compensation Insurance Fund to invest in PACE bonds. As a result, interest rates on PACE financing would probably drop.  Read more...

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Governor Signs Measure to Enhance State's PACE Programs; Affects State Fund

October 12, 2010
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill to boost the financing of solar electric systems and other energy improvements made by property owners who pay for them through property taxes, but for now most such programs remain in limbo across the state and the nation.

The new law authorizes three state funds – the California Public Employees Retirement System, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, and the Pooled Money Investment Board – to invest in local bonds to fund PACE programs.  Read more...

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State Fund furlough remedy isn't settled

September 10, 2010
[T[here may be some thorny legal issues about the remedy for more than 200,000 state workers if the California Supreme Court rules that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally furloughed them.

That got us thinking about the State Compensation Insurance Fund's 7,900 employees. Two trial courts concluded that furloughing them violated state insurance code barring "staff cutbacks" (a unique law that applies only to State Fund employees) and ordered back pay with interest. We wondered in July 2009, "How do you compensate everyone for their furlough hours?"   Read more...

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Schwarzenegger asks Supreme Court to review furlough case

July 22, 2010
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday asked the state Supreme Court to add SEIU Local 1000 v. Schwarzenegger to the list of furlough cases under the high court's review.

The governor is hoping the court will overturn an appellate ruling that upheld trial court Judge Charlotte Woolard's decision that furloughing SEIU-covered employees at the State Compensation Insurance Fund violated California insurance code.  Read more...

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Court Rules Furloughs Illegal for Employees in Workers' Compensation

June 14, 2010
On Friday, the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that about 7,900 State Compensation Insurance Fund employees were illegally furloughed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) last year and are entitled to $25 million in back pay, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.  Read more...
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Court rules workers' comp furloughs illegal

June 13, 2010
About 7,900 state workers' compensation employees were furloughed illegally by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year and are entitled to $25 million in back pay, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

A state law that exempts employees of the State Compensation Insurance Fund from hiring freezes and staff cutbacks also prohibits Schwarzenegger from cutting their workweeks, said the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.   Read more...

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Schwarzenegger loses second furlough lawsuit appeal

June 11, 2010
The 1st District Court of Appeal has ruled against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appeal of Judge Charlotte Woolard's judgment in SEIU Local 1000 v. Schwarzenegger. The union's lawsuit successfully argued that furloughing State Compensation Insurance Fund employees violated state insurance code.  Read more...
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State argues in court for furloughs

May 29, 2010
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's lawyer defended his furloughs of 7,900 state workers' compensation employees before a skeptical state appeals court Friday, saying a law that protects them from cutbacks leaves the governor free to reduce their workweeks.

The law covering employees of the State Compensation Insurance Fund is "a narrow limitation on the authority of the governor," attorney David Tyra told the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. He said the ban on staff cutbacks should be interpreted as prohibiting only layoffs and not unpaid furloughs.   Read more...

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California Supreme Court takes case on state worker furloughs

May 21, 2010
California's highest court has jumped into the middle of the legal fight over state worker furloughs, a move that could speed up resolving whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger legally exercised his authority when furloughing more than 200,000 state workers last year.   Read more...
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Calif. Court Plunges Into Furlough Litigation Brought by State-Employed Attorneys

May 21, 2010
California's Supreme Court dived into the growing pool of state worker furlough litigation Thursday when it reopened a challenge brought by attorneys employed by the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

In March, the 1st District ruled in CASE v. Schwarzenegger, 10 C.D.O.S. 3475, that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not have the authority to order 500 SCIF attorneys in 2009 to take two unpaid days each month because state law expressly protects the fund's employees from "staff cutbacks."   Read more...

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S.C. to Decide if State Fund Workers May Be Furloughed

May 21, 2010
The California Supreme Court has voted unanimously to consider whether attorneys, administrative law judges and hearing officers who work for the State Compensation Insurance Fund can be furloughed.

The justices, at their weekly conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, said they would decide whether the First District Court of Appeal was correct when it ruled in March, in California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment v. Schwarzenegger (2010) 182 Cal.App.4th 1424, that such furloughs violate the Insurance Code.   Read more...

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State Supreme Court to review furlough case

May 20, 2010
The state Supreme Court said Thursday that it would hear arguments in a lawsuit brought against the Schwarzenegger administration challenging the forced-furloughs of workers at the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

At issue is whether the governor has the authority to furlough state employees through an executive order, the court said. The court noted that it may review the case while considering issues raised in other legal challenges targeting the administration’s furlough policies.  Read more...

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Furlough of State Fund Workers Illegal

March 24, 2010
The 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco upheld a trial court's ruling that Schwarzenegger and the director of the Department of Personnel Administration violated the law by ordering the State Fund employees to take two days off without pay each month.   Read more...
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Court rules on furloughs for 475 insurance fund lawyers

March 20, 2010
The ruling by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco applies to about 500 attorneys and hearing officers who work for the State Compensation Insurance Fund.  Read more...
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Appellate court upholds State Fund decision

March 20, 2010
Click here for more important details on how the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco upheld a lower court decision that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally furloughed about 500 State Compensation Insurance Fund legal professionals last year.  Read more...
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Court rules on furloughs for 475 insurance fund lawyers

March 19, 2010
Click here to read how a state appeals court in San Francisco ruled on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough of about 475 lawyers who work for State Compensation Insurance Fund.   Read more...
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CALIFORNIA ATTORNEYS v. SCHWARZENEGGER

March 19, 2010
Defendants Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his capacity as the Governor of California, and David Gilb, in his capacity as the Director of the Department of Personnel Administration (DPA), appeal from an order and judgment granting a petition for writ of mandate prohibiting defendants from implementing furloughs for employees of the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF).  Read more...
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California Plans Fast Data Center Consolidation

February 12, 2010
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Tuesday stipulating that California reduce the total amount of data center square footage currently utilized by state agencies by 25 percent by July, and by 50 percent by July 2011. ... The state has $3 billion in annual IT expenditures. In the past two years the state has begun consolidating some aging department-level data centers into a more modern facility in Vacaville that the state is leasing from the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF), a nonprofit that provides workers compensation insurance to employers.  Read more...
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Judge tells Schwarzenegger to end state worker furloughs

December 31, 2009
An Alameda Superior Court judge has ordered the Schwarzenegger administration to stop furloughing thousands of state workers who are members of three big public sector unions, including Service Employees International Union Local 1000, offering them a huge legal victory as 2010 begins.  Read more...
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Mulryan Appointed to State Compensation Insurance Fund Board

November 27, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Larry Mulryan of San Rafael to a board seat on the state Compensation Insurance Fund.  Read more...
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California’s Fiscal Health Continues to Deteriorate, Despite Many Deep Cuts

October 31, 2009

Just three months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut, taxed and line-item-vetoed away a two-year budget gap of $26 billion, California faces billions of dollars in new shortfalls, with the problem likely to deepen in the next fiscal year.  Read more...

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Court battles surround furloughs

October 29, 2009
A flurry of court fights, union-filed grievances and even a federal intervention are complicating the Schwarzenegger administration’s budget-balancing action requiring state employees to take three Fridays each month off without pay, which amounts to about a 14 percent pay cut and the administration says saves the state about $2 billion annually.   Read more...
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Furlough fights

October 22, 2009
Furlough tussles between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and various interests are keeping the courts and a legion of lawyers busy.   Read more...
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Opinion: Walters: California budget springs a leak

October 16, 2009
Other key assumptions in the budget, such as a $1 billion sale of the State Compensation Insurance Fund or another billion in federal funds, are also not happening, a series of wildfires scorched a tiny emergency reserve, and so far the state is losing budget-related lawsuits.   Read more...
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Judge issues setback to Schwarzenegger furloughs

September 3, 2009
A San Francisco judge has sided with a state employee union in a lawsuit against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the legality of worker furloughs. The ruling found the governor overstepped his authority when he ordered 7.400 workers for the State Compensation Insurance Fund to take three furlough days per month.   Read more...
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