(Photo courtesy http://www.ioc.state.il.us)
By Illinois News Network
SPRINGFIELD – It’s Day Seven of the new fiscal year with no budget in place and Illinois’ comptroller said she will be in court to request an order she urged the Attorney General to obtain, to pay state employees their full pay and on time.
Comptroller Leslie Munger said in a news release Monday that she will be in court requesting an order that will allow her to pay all state employees on their scheduled pay date. Her office says the Cook County Circuit Court appearance Tuesday morning is part of the case filed last week by Attorney General Lisa Madigan seeking clarification of which employees should be paid and how much they should get absent a budget.
Madigan’s case also asks for an injunction requiring payroll either hold off until the enactment of appropriation bills, or to pay only the federal minimum wage. Meanwhile AFSCME has filed a lawsuit seeking employees get full pay on time. The comptroller’s office says decades-old payroll systems make it impractical to comply with the federal minimum wage and insists on full pay.
The state’s Central Management Services also said that it could take between nine and 12 months to accurately determine the Federal Labor Standards Act status of the approximately 45,000 state employees, absent a state budget. The first pay period for state employees is July 15.
