It took United States District Court Judge Vaughn Walker just one day to determine that an employment lawsuit brought on behalf of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) had no merit.

The case was brought by a representative of a class of California correctional officers against former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger alleging that the state's self-directed furloughs violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In response to California's mounting budget deficit, Schwarzenegger implemented the furlough program, which mandated that state employees in every sector would be required to take a set number of unpaid days off in a year.

Several state agencies and workers' unions fought against the furloughs, alleging that they were a violation of state and federal employment law as well as the FLSA. The CCPOA brought a federal lawsuit alleging that to cut the employees' pay but defer the actual furlough time was a violation of the FLSA because it meant that employees were not paid in full for actual hours worked during a given pay period. The CCPOA representative also alleged that time worked on an unpaid furlough day should be factored in when determining overtime, and that the state had not kept sufficient payroll records.

Judge Walker disagreed, stating that the furlough program was not intended to force state employees to work for free. "The furlough program, while perhaps convoluted in execution, ensures that [state workers] are compensated for all hours worked during the pay period," he wrote in his ruling. "Because plaintiffs are compensated for all hours worked, and because that compensation exceeds federal minimum standards, plaintiff's claim of violation of FLSA fails."

As for the latter complaints, Judge Walker stated that only the Secretary of Labor has the ability to sue for record keeping violations.

Source: Sacramento Bee, "State Worker: Judge rules against prison officers in furlough lawsuit", Jon Ortiz, 14 January 2011