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UB monitoring furlough proposal
The UB administration is closely tracking a proposal by Gov. David Paterson to furlough state workers, including SUNY employees, in an effort to address the state’s growing budget deficit.
In an e-mail to the UB community, Provost Satish K. Tripathi and Scott D. Nostaja, vice president for human resources, noted that the governor’s proposed legislation to furlough workers one day during the week of May 17 has not yet been passed, and no immediate action iplanned in response to the proposal.
But “because state employees within SUNY would be affected by the legislation, we will continue to monitor this situation closely and will keep the campus community informed of any developments with potential impact to our university employees,” they administrators said.
With UB’s first summer session beginning on May 17, “we are exploring strategies for mitigating disruption to summer course schedules in the event the legislation passes,” they said.
Paterson announced on Tuesday that he would include language authorizing state employee furloughs as part of his next round of proposed emergency appropriations bills. The bills are needed to keep state government running in the absence of a final enacted budget.
The Legislature is expected to vote on the bill on Monday. If the bill is passed, employees would be scheduled one furlough day during the week of May 17. They would not come to work on their furlough day and would not be paid for that day. The governor is considering seeking additional furloughs in future emergency appropriation bills until a final budget is enacted by the Legislature.
The furlough would not apply to workers in positions that provide direct care or certain security services deemed “essential,” such as correction officers, nurses and state troopers.
Management/Confidential employees also would not be subject to the furlough, since, unlike union employees, their scheduled general salary increase was eliminated in each of the last two years.
More information about the proposed legislation is available at the governor’s website.
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