Gibbons vetoes four-day work week bill

By Cy Ryan

Published Thursday, March 11, 2010 | 10:12 a.m.

Updated Thursday, March 11, 2010 | 10:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons has formally vetoed a bill that would put state workers on 10-hour work days and close state offices on Friday.

Gibbons, in his veto message delivered to Secretary of State Ross Miller, said the bill “does not accomplish the flexibility that is needed with the least possible negative impact.” He said he wants the state department to have the flexibility to “implement innovative work schedules.”

But the governor might face a lawsuit, according to a spokesman for state workers. Aldo Vennetilli, field services director for the American Federation of States, County and Municipal Employees, says its legal department is looking at whether Gibbons has the authority on his own to make certain changes.

These would include eliminating such things as extra money for working certain shifts, for having certain higher professional credentials or being a bilingual worker.

Vennetilli said a final decision hasn't been made by the legal department whether to file the suit.

The governor complained that the bill overturned a directive he issued last month to stop “certain permissive additional compensation and adjustment to salaries of certain employees.” Gibbons said the bill “deliberately and blatantly contravenes my directive …”

The bill said the extra payments made prior to the governor’s order should be reinstated. But Gibbons said that will cost the state “millions of dollars.”

The veto message said, “Instead of creating flexibility for the state agencies to implement innovative work schedules that would save the state money, Senate Bill 3 will actually cost the state time, money and manpower to implement.”

The bill, Gibbons said, creates “confusion, uncertainty and inequity among employees.”

The 2009 Legislature, in an effort to save money, directed state workers take a one-day-a-month furlough or have their pay reduced by 4.6 percent. But the Legislature discovered the policy was not uniform, with some workers not required to take the furlough or the pay reduction.

The governor said the Legislature took certain actions that were outside his call for a special session. The governor sets the agenda for special sessions of the Legislature.

Gibbons complained that the bill expands the power of the Legislature into the field of the executive branch. The bill says that any exemption from the mandatory furlough must be approved by the Legislative Interim Finance Committee.

The governor said this violates the separation of powers doctrine.