1. this is like the early 90s here, the state gave all employees a huge raise while REAL workers didnt get squat…. soooo the state made employees take a day off, fridays of course, to make up for it…

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   1. Oregon instituted furlough days for ALL state employees for a while there. Everyone had to take a certain number of days off per year, unpaid. 12 days for most people: 6 “mandatory” days scheduled for everyone (offices were closed), and 6 “floating” furloughs.
      .
      Upside was, you got to pick your “floating” days. Downside was, your paycheck took a hit (but somewhat more manageable if you took your “floaters” in months that didn’t already have mandatory furloughs).
      .
      “Budget shortfalls” plus “can’t fire or lay off anyone ever” (yay, unions! [/sarc]) meant they had to (got to?) pull crap like that. And as with most “cost-saving” measures it was the lowest-paid employees got hit hardest.

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      1. Exactly the same thing happened to me when I was working for a Public Utility District, and the same forced ‘furlough’ choices..

2. hours reduced to zero…. yeah… thanks!
   Im suprised they didn’t cut police and fire hours…

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   1. Indeed. Politicians tend to cut the most important jobs *first* — to teach those uppity voters not to mess with them. For politicians to trim worthless and chair warming jobs in any way is quite unusual.

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3. Technically, the zero hour employees cannot file for unemployment because they are still technically employed.
   (At least that is my thought.)

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   1. IANAL, but I believe you are correct. And if they quit, it’s a voluntary separation and they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.
      .
      And because they’re employed “less than full time”, they might lose medical if those goes on for too long.
      .
      For some reason, leaving under those conditions doesn’t fall under the “constructive dismissal” exception, either, in which you leave “voluntarily” because the employer has made it untenable to work there (usually due to harassment, retaliation, hostile work environment, and such). I would think that having my hours cut to zero for reasons unrelated to my work performance would qualify as a constructive dismissal, but … it probably doesn’t. (Again, IANAL.)

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      1. Valid points, all of them.
         And, it has been ages since I have applied for unemployment benefits, but I do remember something about eligibility if the terms of the job changed significantly enough. I am not sure if a cut in hours (to zero for a week) counts.

4. When Home Depot introduced scanners I objected, saying it was anti-labor. Employee “corrected” me, saying, “Oh no, nobody has been laid off, they just cut our hours.”

5. I occasionally wondered where the sh*t bag, doublespeaking, spineless, backstabbing managers I used to work for ended up. Looks like some of them found a home in Denver government.

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6. LOL. The first thing I thought of was this clip:

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