Lost Pay in 70's At the height of New York City's fiscal crisis in the mid-1970's, the City University system placed all workers on a mandatory two-week furlough.

Several union groups representing state workers said they would take the position that the state had no legal authority to impose mandatory furloughs.

In addition, mandatory, unpaid furloughs lasting up to 28 days have reduced the hours of the remaining employees by the equivalent of 78 workers.

During February and March Huron/Fisker instituted mandatory furloughs among all employees; however, many were tasked with continuing to work without compensation during these furloughs.

Unions to Resist Union leaders vowed a bitter fight against both the layoffs and the mandatory furloughs.

Among the more striking changes from the Governor's proposed package is the deferred-pay plan, which the Legislature adopted instead of Mr. Cuomo's proposal to place all state employees on mandatory unpaid one-week furloughs.

Mr. Cuomo also called for mandatory, unpaid one-week furloughs for all state employees, and is negotiating with state workers' unions over the plan.

By then seven staff members had lost their jobs, and everyone else had taken 10 percent salary cuts and mandatory two-week furloughs.

Since the beginning of the year, the company has taken a number of cost-saving measures, including employee and executive pay cuts, mandatory furloughs and limits on temporary employees.

But little joy has greeted the news: These vacation days would be mandatory furloughs, without pay, a move proposed by the Governor to help close a $1 billion state budget deficit for the current year.