GA.School System employees...how are YOU being furloughed??

[mum4jenn]

Our county is furloughing the teachers 3 days. They have already adjusted their monthly pay to reflect the changes.

The rest (hourly employees) of us are having to take one furloughed day.

This is up until December and there will most likely be more days in 2010.

I do like the fact that even the school board members are taking 3 meeting days unpaid.

The state troopers are having to take 11 days of unpaid leave.

This is one time I am glad I don't make much money to begin with!! LOL!!

I AM thankful to have a job though!!

Don't move to GEORGIA!!!!

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I'm not in Georgia, but here in NJ there is talk of furloughs for state and municipal workers. My workplace could be affected if it comes to pass. I am not full-time anyways so I am not sure how affected I would be (since I don't make much anyways), but some of my coworkers would HOWL!!!! Many of my coworkers are "old school" - they truly believe their job will always be there for them, that they can never be fired for any reason, and they will always be well paid with full benefits and every perk they are used to (longevity pay, no co-pays on medical insurance, large generous pensions etc). Oh and the union will always protect them.

Furloughs would open the eyes of many of my coworkers that things are changing. Not sure how they would deal.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Stupid question is it 3 days a week or total of three days.

 

[Robinrs]

Stupid question is it 3 days a week or total of three days.

Just 3 days during the school year. If it were 3 days a week

 

[luvthatdisney]

Hi,

I live in NC and we had to made to take 10 hours of furlough time back in May. Our May and June paychecks were reduced by 0.5% and we have to take 10 hrs of furlough leave between May and December. That was for all state employees as far as I know.

It appears GA's furlough is much larger than ours, but I could see them tacking on more days to us. Our state still does not have a budget signed and are in the negative as far as money goes. School systems have had to give back millions to the state this year.

Good luck!

 

[mum4jenn]

Stupid question is it 3 days a week or total of three days.

It is 3 days total (not affecting classroom time) through the end of 2009. There will most likely be more days in 2010 unless a huge miracle happens to state revenue.

 

[mum4jenn]

Hi,

I live in NC and we had to made to take 10 hours of furlough time back in May. Our May and June paychecks were reduced by 0.5% and we have to take 10 hrs of furlough leave between May and December. That was for all state employees as far as I know.

It appears GA's furlough is much larger than ours, but I could see them tacking on more days to us. Our state still does not have a budget signed and are in the negative as far as money goes. School systems have had to give back millions to the state this year.

Good luck!

We also did not get ANY raises for this year. We were expecting this because they informed us in the Spring last year. But this kind of just sprang up.
There are I think two or three GA counties that were able to make cuts in other areas so they will probably not have to make any furloughs. Also some counties are furloughing ONLY the teachers. So far I don't really mind the one day cut. Our county system is a good system and our Superintendent is very fair. I do think it is fair for everyone to help with this situation. I just hope they don't take any more days from the hourly employees because my DH is unemployed right now.

 

[barkley]

about 15 years ago the employer i retired from (gov. agency) was trying to cut costs so rather than do a full scale mandatory furlough they first offered up "vto" (voluntary time off). they offered all employees the opportunity to take voluntary furlough up to so many hours a week (it had to be a set schedual you arranged with your manager).

i mentioned it in passing to my cpa and how i'de love to do it but could'nt afford to. she asked if i'de ever crunched the numbers tax wise and then went about doing it for me-i ended up ahead if i furloughed a certain number each week (tax savings, all the regular payroll deductions) so i went ahead and did it-BUT

the way our "voluntary" furlough program worked you still accrued all your benefits at the same level-vacation, sick time, floating holidays AND your "salary" was still officialy the same (you got paid less but your "salary" was still officialy the same as before which was very important for when you retired).

FLASH FORWARD-my old employer is now instituting "mandatory furloughs". staff is going crazy because not only are their checks reducing but their benefits will be prorated. they are seeing that they no longer earn 1 full day per month of sick leave, it's prorated (so they end up having to use vacation time if they have any to make up the difference), their vacation is prorated (and i had allot of co-workers who used every minute to cover the days their kids were out of school for school breaks and such)-BUT THE BIGGEST ISSUE is the employer is looking very closely to the language on their pensions, and how with many of them it's not based on your "salary" but your "earnings". it's been projected that it could greatly reduce future pensions for staff.

i think it's important for people who are looking at being furloughed to look at their employee handbooks and see if other than the $$$ what implications there are. i know of some that did and went to their employer and questioned how "floating holidays" would be administered. their handbook said they could only take them in full 8 hour per day chunks, and any time not used in a particular year was lost ("use it or lose it"), but because of furlogh they would no longer be earning what equated to what they had in the past-3 full 8 hour days. they would be earning about 2 full and 6 hours. they questioned how they could use that 6 hours or if it was just always going to be lost to them.

 

[minnieandmickey]

Classified employee with a California school district here. I have to take 11.5 furlough days this year and next year, this is a 5% paycut. This is on top of my position being switched from a 12 mo to and 11 mo position. So I took a 14% paycut this year, and it hurts. New budget came out and am not sure how hard it hit the schools and if we will have to take even more.

 

[si-am]

Honestly I think it's ridiculous that teachers and other state employees are being furloughed, yet Georgia is currently in the middle of a sales tax free weekend for clothes and school supplies.

While most families will only save a couple of bucks from this gimmick, it's going to cost the state a lot of money that could have maybe offset some of the furloughs.

 

[shellybaxter]

Just 3 days during the school year. If it were 3 days a week

Will they close school those three days? If not who will teach the children?

 

[mum4jenn]

Honestly I think it's ridiculous that teachers and other state employees are being furloughed, yet Georgia is currently in the middle of a sales tax free weekend for clothes and school supplies.

While most families will only save a couple of bucks from this gimmick, it's going to cost the state a lot of money that could have maybe offset some of the furloughs.

I agree completely with this. I think FLA cut out their tax free weekend. I don't know WHY in the world GA decided to keep theirs.

 

[mum4jenn]

Will they close school those three days? If not who will teach the children?

These days are NON instructional times. For instance with our county they will take two days off during Pre planning August 6th and 7th.
The last day will be taken as two half days. When the children go home, the teachers will go home as well.
If they take more days in 2010 it will probably be on teacher work days scheduled in January and February.