The 43,000-member Hawaii Government Employees Association has joined two other public workers’ unions in seeking a court injunction against Gov. Linda Lingle’s planned furloughs of state workers beginning next month.

Legal motions filed by the HGEA yesterday also seek a court ruling that Lingle’s back-up plan of laying off thousands of state workers would violate state law and collective bargaining agreements now in force.
The Lingle administration announced plans June 1 to furlough state workers for three days a month for two years. The move would save $688 million in an effort to offset a projected $730 million state budget shortfall through June 2011. Lingle has said that if her furlough plan is thwarted, she will be forced to lay off workers.
The HGEA motions will be argued in a July 2 hearing before Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto. The hearing will also concern temporary restraining order motions filed earlier against the furlough plan by the United Public Workers and the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
The HGEA motions assert that Lingle does not have the legal authority to unilaterally order furloughs and even if she did, procedures for implementing the furloughs are subject to negotiation with the union.
Furlough-related questions subject to negotiation, the union said, should include:
— Which employees may be furloughed.
— Necessary advance notice of furloughs.
— Re-calculation of benefits including vacation and sick leave because of furloughs.
— Use of earned vacation to obtain compensation on furlough days.
— Whether work units furlough everyone on the same day or spread them out.
— Which work days would be scheduled for furloughs.
Similarly, HGEA attorney James E.T. Koshiba argued, if the governor resorts to mass layoffs instead of furloughs, she still must follow established procedures including a “requirement that the employer provide 90 days advance notice of any layoffs.”