Nebraska government workers won’t all have to stay home, unpaid, to help ease budget pressures that threaten to force layoffs and reductions in state services.
More than 900 state workers covered by union contracts will get
raises this year but won’t have to take two furlough days like most
other union employees. More than 400 of those employees are in the Department of Education. Governor Dave Heineman tells us that it should be reconsidered.
“I believe they should be taking furloughs just like the rest of state government and I think it is very, very important for the State Board of Education to vote on this issue.”
The departments aren’t under the direct control of the governor, have separate union contracts, and their bosses have decided not to require furloughs. The others are in the state college system.
