Defying an injunction issued in Lackawanna (Pennsylvania) County Court, hundreds of city employees in Scranton, Pennsylvania opened their paychecks on Friday only to find they were paid only minimum wage for their work.
Amid Scranton’s ever-deepening financial crisis, Mayor Chris Doherty said his administration is going forward with a plan to unilaterally slash the pay of 398 workers to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour with today’s payroll, insisting it is all the city can afford.
That will likely earn administration officials an appointment with Judge Michael Barrasse, who granted the city’s police, fire and public works unions a special injunction temporarily barring the administration from imposing the pay cuts after a brief hearing Thursday.
Despite Mayor’s Doherty’s possibly illegal action to pay city employees with valid union contracts (including police officers and fire fighters) minimum wage, representatives of those employees have made it clear employees will continue to do their jobs despite the actions of Mayor Doherty. Said Det. Sgt. Bob Martin, president of the police union, “We’re coming to work. We’ll be there to protect the citizens until these people figure this out.”
They should get payed minimum wage