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HARRISBURG – The Senate unanimously approved today Senate Bill 1122, legislation sponsored by Senator Jeffrey E. Piccola (R-15), designating all 80,000 employees of the Commonwealth as essential in the event of a budget stalemate and thus prohibiting a furlough.
Last July, Governor Rendell designated approximately 24,000 Commonwealth employees as non-essential and laid them off because the state did not have a budget in place. The budget standoff lasted one day and the furloughed workers then returned to their jobs and state services resumed.
“With the governor’s order, state workers deemed not critical to health or safety were furloughed without pay – an irresponsible and unnecessary move that impacted about a third of the state’s workforce,” said Piccola. “The last time furloughs occurred was in 1991 during a 34-day impasse which sparked a demonstration at the Capitol by unpaid workers. This time around, welcome centers, state parks, and historic sites were closed at the height of our tourist season, as well as many state services such as driver’s license centers because of the government shutdown.”
“As the senator who represents the largest population of state employees in Pennsylvania, I was appalled by the governor’s actions to furlough what he labeled ‘non-essential’ workers. The impasse highlighted a major flaw in our budget process – the use of state employees and their families as pawns in a political chess match. This should never be the case and that’s why we should eliminate the power of any governor to furlough workers should a stalemate occur,” he said. “Public policy and political differences need to be set aside.”
“I applaud my colleagues in the Senate for stepping up to the plate and recognizing that no Commonwealth employee should be caught in the middle of a budget crossfire. In order to prohibit such nonsense in the future, it’s important that we enact this legislation into law. We need to assure all state employees that they are essential and compensated in the event of an impasse,” Piccola added.
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