Half of Monterey County Court staff call out sick amid contract negotiations

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- A union member with the Monterey County Superior Court workers confirmed with KION that half of the staff with the courts called out sick on Friday. This is after negotiations between workers and management stalled earlier in the week.

 "Over half, if not three-quarters of the people that work at the court," the union member said.

“We found that the employees here at the Monterey County Courthouse are making between 5.6% all the way up to almost 15% less than the people in those areas," said Monterey County Court Reporter and Union Rep Stefani Cortopassi.

Court management said they’ve offered increases including a 12% total raise over three years and increasing the health insurance employer share to 90%.

Union leaders told KION that they tried to prevent the "sickout" but the staff was too angry to listen. Adding the sickout was not sanctioned by the Union.

"They're taking matters into their own hands because they're tired" of what's going on, and staff are "angry."

An anonymous union leader says the last straw was when Chris Ruhl, a spokesperson for the court, took credit for two things that the Union says they initially proposed: "These include additional funds for bilingual pay and we also proposed death benefit because a deal on that hasn't been done for years."

ORIGINAL STORY

Negotiations between 165 unionized Monterey County Superior Court workers and court management have stalled.

According to the union, talks fell through on Tuesday and there are no plans to talk anytime shortly.

The union claims the pay isn't competitive with other Central Coast and Bay Area counties.

“We found that the employees here at the Monterey County Courthouse are making between 5.6% all the way up to almost 15% less than the people in those areas," said Monterey County Court Reporter and Union Rep Stefani Cortopassi.

Court management said they’ve offered increases including a 12% total raise over three years and increasing the health insurance employer share to 90%.

“That is the most generous offer we've had on the table. During the whole time, I've been here as court executive officer, and that's seven years now," said Monterey County Court Executive Officer Chris Ruhl.

However, workers argue the year-over-year raises aren’t enough to keep up with rising costs. Another point the union is trying to figure out the length of the contract.

“We said you know what, we're only going to do a one-year contract 7% salary increase," Cortopassi said.

Meanwhile, the court argues, that they only have so much money to offer.

“We're limited by our own budget, obviously, this year, the court has did get an inflationary increase in his budget, but it's only 3%," said Monterey County Court Executive Officer Chris Ruhl.

Despite that, the union maintains the court does have the budget for that kind of raise.

The court said if this comes to a work stoppage and strike, they are prepared to prioritize court cases depending on how quickly it needs to move.

While the union has mentioned the possibility of a strike, there are still no specific plans to do so right away.