Wondering About State of California’s Payroll Software
Having lived in California for a couple of years and having been a state government employee for a number of years (though not in the CA state govt.), I'm trying to figure out a statement from this article in the LA Times...
Schwarzenegger orders mass layoffs, unpaid furloughs
Schwarzenegger attempted a few months ago to unilaterally reduce the pay of state employees, but his order never took effect. State Controller John Chiang said the state's payroll system was incapable of carrying it out.
Is a statute (legal) issue that does not allow a unilateral pay reduction (which would make sense)? Or is it that the payroll system software is incapable of making such a change? Is it one of those software systems that is 30 years old that no one fully understands anymore?