California correctional officers would take one furlough day per month and defer raises for two years under a proposed agreement their union has negotiated with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association’s two-year agreement appears to be the first deal a state union has reached with the administration over pay cuts Newsom proposed for all state workers to help address a projected $54 billion budget deficit.

The tentative agreement will require a vote from the union’s 26,000 members to pass and will need approval from the Legislature.

The agreement uses a personal leave program to reduce officers’ pay by 4.5% — roughly the equivalent of one day of work per month — for two years. In exchange, the officers receive 12 hours of paid leave per month, the equivalent of one and a half days of work.

A 3% raise the officers were scheduled to receive July 1 is deferred until July 1, 2022.

The agreement would reduce the state’s spending on correctional officers by 8.99%, or about $395 million, according to a cost summary of the agreement. Correctional officers make up a large share of the state’s general fund spending on its workforce, accounting for about a third of general fund payroll spending.

Newsom’s original proposal of two unpaid leave days would have reduced the state’s spending on the group by 9.53%, or about $419 million, according to the summary.

The agreement softens the impact of the cuts on correctional officers’ pocketbooks by suspending a paycheck deduction that funds the health care plans they’ll use in retirement. That change allows workers’ to keep 4% of their paycheck that had been going to future health care costs.

The state also would cover an increase to health insurance costs of .54 percent, according to the summary.

The deal would suspend holiday pay for seven of the 11 state holidays, eliminate one personal development day for the term of the agreement, suspend night and weekend differentials and make other tweaks to pay.

A spokeswoman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association has not responded to a request for comment.

Newsom on May 14 proposed reducing state workers’ pay by 10 percent and canceling raises many workers are scheduled to receive in July, which combined would have saved the state about $3.6 billion. His proposal called for reducing their pay unilaterally if negotiated agreements with state unions couldn’t be reached.

Legislative leaders took a different approach in subsequent proposals, creating uncertainty around the role state pay would play in the state’s balancing of its budget. Legislators declined to support the mandatory pay cuts, preferring any reductions occur through collective bargaining.

The correctional officers’ tentative agreement comes close to Newsom’s original proposal in terms of savings.

Legislators were set to approve a state budget Monday to meet a constitutionally required deadline, even though they haven’t yet worked out differences with the Governor’s Office. The vote will allow legislators to avoid triggering a state law that suspends their pay if they don’t pass a budget on time.

Newsom said he and his staff would participate in the 10% reduction. Legislators have not said whether they will take a pay cut.

The California Citizens Compensation Commission declined at a meeting last month to require legislators take a pay cut, opting to freeze salaries instead.

This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 11:15 AM with the headline "First deal on California state worker pay cuts: What correctional officers give up, get."