Better to lose some pay than one's job, thousands of Stanislaus County workers decided before county supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved salary-slimming furloughs.
Nearly 4,000 county employees took the recession's latest hit, agreeing to sacrifice as much as 5 percent of their wages for as many as 13 unpaid days off in the fiscal year that will start July 1.
Many have seen co-workers laid off. All know that furloughs provide only minimal protection against pink slips while the county continues to stagger under a $34 million budget deficit.
"We don't know what's coming down the pike," said Corinne Wilson, business agent for Stanislaus County Employees Association AFSCME Local 10 in Modesto. She acknowledged that layoffs remain probable.
County administrators in the past year have slashed services, eliminated 131 positions and frozen hiring for 443 vacancies.
"We have a lot of single parents, be it man or woman," Wilson said. "Any deletion in your income is deletion in your income. And it hurts."
The union is among seven representing most of the county's 3,944 workers, all of which cast majority votes supporting furloughs. Jobs range from health care and road crews to prosecutors and probation officers.
The unions and unrepresented managers account for 87 percent of the county's work force. The rest, including units in the Sheriff's Department, resident physicians and emergency dispatchers, work under mandatory staffing rules and might not present significant savings if furloughed.
The county theoretically would save about $1.2 million for each day that all workers are idled.
That includes the county's top elected officials, who technically are part-time, unrepresented managers.
"We'll see 5 percent of our salary furloughed away," Supervisor Bill O'Brien said Tuesday. In June, board members declined a 7.5 percent raise but still receive $75,000 in salary and benefits.
Leaders of each of the county's 27 departments will decide how to implement furloughs. Some might close the office on a particular day, as state government did in months past. Others could idle workers on a rotating schedule. Others might not use furloughs if they can otherwise balance their budgets, said Jody Hayes, county deputy executive officer for human resources.
For example, child support services, which eliminated 62 jobs late last year, hopes not to furlough anyone this year, director David Ingersoll said.
Departments will reveal furlough plans in coming weeks.
Hayes reminded county officials that "furloughs alone will not relieve staffing reductions. But they will reduce (layoffs)."
Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or 578-2390.
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