A Noval Plan…..15,000 S.F. Workers Face Layoffs And Shorter Weeks But May Get Rehired Part Time
Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 3, 2010
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
More than 15,000 San Francisco city workers across all departments will receive layoff notices Friday, and most of them will have the option of being rehired to work a shorter week, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.
Newsom’s controversial plan to help reduce the city’s $522 million budget deficit for the 2010-11 fiscal year would shift the majority of the city’s 26,000 workers from a 40-hour week to 37 1/2 hours, cutting their paychecks by 6.25 percent.
The plan is expected to save $100 million – half in the city’s general operating fund and half in money-generating departments including the port and airport – but is being decried by unions and some supervisors as a slap at the rank and file.
They also pointed to the mayor’s inability to promise that the move would spare future layoffs. Newsom said not all workers who receive layoff notices Friday will be rehired but refused to specify how many that may be.
The mayor insisted, though, that it’s a smart way to spare several thousand layoffs and ensure that workers retain jobs as the city faces its biggest budget deficit. The move to a shortened workweek would not affect employees’ health benefits, vacation or sick time.
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