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SACRAMENTO (AP) ― State officials said they will close most California state offices on the first and third Fridays of each month starting Feb. 6 as a cost-saving measure.

The closures are part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to force state employees to take unpaid furloughs, or days off, twice a month.

Department of Personnel Administration spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley said exceptions will be made for prisons, hospitals, parks and some other agencies, mostly those that generate money for the state.

Employees at those agencies will be furloughed on a rotating schedule.

Schwarzenegger said the furloughs will save the state about $1.3 billion in the next 18 months as California as it grapples with a deficit projected at $42 billion in that time.

Lawsuits by state employee unions challenging  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough order will get a court hearing at the end of the month, a Sacramento County judge ruled Friday.

Three state employee unions have filed separate lawsuits, each alleging that Schwarzenegger exceeded his authority and violated the collective bargaining process. They say furloughs can be implemented only with consent of the unions or the Legislature.

The unions say Schwarzenegger's order amounts to a nearly 10 percent pay cut for the 235,000 state workers who would be affected. California Highway Patrol officers would be exempt because their union is the only one with a contract that is still in effect.

Bargaining agreements covering the state's other employee groups have expired and are being negotiated.

Schwarzenegger's lawyers are seeking to have the lawsuits dismissed on technical grounds. They said the legal issue should be decided by the Public Employment Relations Board, whose five members are appointed by the governor.

If Marlette agrees, "then the rest of this becomes moot," said Lynelle Jolley, spokeswoman for the state Department of Personnel Administration.

If the judge decides he does have jurisdiction, he will consider whether the governor can act unilaterally.

"We think the governor doesn't have the authority to cut people's pay or tell people to stay home from work," Bruce Blanning, executive director of Professional Engineers in California Government, said outside the courtroom.

He said placing the union's workers on furlough will not save money because 95 percent of state engineers are paid with motor fuel taxes and federal money.

"You just delay construction jobs and other projects," Blanning said.
The engineers are joined in their lawsuit by the California Association of Professional Scientists.

Similar lawsuits were filed by the largest state employees union, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, and by California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment.
Attorneys from the three unions agreed during Friday's brief hearing to have their lawsuits considered jointly by Marlette.

Separately, SEIU has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Public Employment Relations Board.

An earlier Schwarzenegger plan to cut state employees' pay is awaiting a separate court decision. Last summer, the governor ordered the pay of tens of thousands of state workers cut to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour. A hearing on his authority to order the cut is set for late February.
The wage cut was never implemented because state Controller John Chiang refused to comply with Schwarzenegger's order.

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