LAKE COUNTY ? A Lake County Superior Court employee got her job back mid-January after more than four months of unemployment.
Marlene Elder of Middletown received a letter from three deciding Lake County judges that she had been wrongfully terminated and she started back Jan. 11.
“I”m glad to get retirement, benefits, to work for a living and to not have to worry about finding a job,” Elder said.
Elder had filed a grievance that the court broke its memorandum of understanding with her in September when they terminated her position and didn”t allow her to bump junior employees from their jobs.
She and her union representative argued their position against the court administrative office during a public hearing Dec. 17 in Lakeport.
Based on the wording of the MOU, the judges sided with Elder, she said.
“I was a little surprised, yet not surprised,” Elder said of when she read the letter.
Once the decision came in, Elder took a demotion, about a 10 percent pay cut, in lieu of a layoff, she said.
“Of course I”m not happy about it,” Elder said. “I don”t think I should have had to take a pay cut.”
“No one else has really been asked to take a pay cut in these tough times,” Elder said.
However, she said she would rather have a job.
Elder said the court laid off two people since she got her job back because of budget constraints.
Krista LeVier, human resources manager for the court, said she couldn”t comment on personnel matters.
However, LeVier said no one else has filed grievances with her. She expects the court will look at the wording of the MOU when the contract expires in December.
Elder received back pay minus unemployment benefits, which the court will have to pay back to the state, she said.
She”s working in the traffic department in both Clearlake and Lakeport, where she said she got a lot of support from court and county employees.
“Everyone seems to be treating me really good, a lot of clerks are glad I got my job back because they know they could be next,” Elder said.
Contact Katy Sweeny at ksweeny@record-bee.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
