Appellate court affirms state employees must be paid

A panel of appellate judges in the state’s Fifth District has unanimously upheld a temporary restraining order issued by a St. Clair County Circuit Court that enables public service workers in state government to be paid on time and in full even in the absence of an enacted state budget for the fiscal year that started July 1.

The case was brought against the State of Illinois by unions representing state employees. The unions argued that failure to pay state workers on time and in full would be an unconstitutional impairment of contract—violating the unions’ respective collective bargaining agreements that establish employee wages and pay schedules.

The appellate panel today upheld the TRO and remanded the case to St. Clair County Circuit Court for trial. The judges wrote:

“State employees have a protectable right to be paid for work they perform. … State employees will suffer irreparable harm if the TRO is not granted. As the unions stated in their motion requesting the TRO, no one knows when the budget impasse will end. … The loss of pay will, at the very least, cause State employees and their families a good deal of stress. Some may be unable to make payments on their homes, cars, or other debts.”

“Public service workers in state government keep us safe, protect kids, care for veterans and people with disabilities, and provide many other vital services, and it’s right that they will be paid on time and in full for the work they do,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch said. “Now instead of holding public services hostage, Governor Rauner should drop his extreme demands for policy changes that are unrelated to the budget and would hurt the middle class, and turn his attention to working with legislative leaders to pass a fair budget without preconditions.”

A related case is still pending in Cook County.