Posted on: Saturday, January 8, 2005

Substitutes sue to halt pay cut

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Public school substitute teachers filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday against the state in an attempt to block a proposed pay cut this month.

The lawsuit was filed in state Circuit Court by substitute teachers Allan Kliternick, David Garner, Jo Jennifer Goldsmith and David Hudson on behalf of the state's 9,000 substitute teachers. Named as defendants were Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto, the Board of Education and the Department of Education.

The DOE last October announced that the daily pay for substitute teachers would drop from $119.80 to $111.41 beginning Nov. 1. The department later amended the change, saying the reduction would be to $112.53 and would take effect Jan. 24.

The substitute teachers, however, allege that the pay cut violates a 1996 law that sets pay schedules. If the law were being followed, the substitutes argue, they should be getting about $30 more per day.

In 2002, substitute teachers filed a similar lawsuit, claiming that the state had not followed the pay schedule since the law was enacted in 1996. They were seeking $25 million in damages.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn ruled last month that the lawsuit could proceed, but she limited the period for which the teachers can seek damages to the two years prior to the filing of the 2002 lawsuit. With the ruling, the amount of damages sought will be reduced to about $15 million.

DOE officials could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.

The pay cut is based on an October 2004 memorandum signed by Hamamoto and Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. That agreement set classifications for teachers as well as substitutes, even though the HSTA does not represent the substitutes.

But the lawsuit alleges that the new classifications affect only the substitutes and not full-time teachers. The lawsuit accused the state of initiating the memorandum "for the sole purpose of undermining the rights of substitute teachers."

The attorney general's office has argued that substitutes are earning the correct amount, the same pay as instructors with four years of college education or who hold a bachelor's degree.

Reach Curtis Lum at 525-8025 or culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.