Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation v. State Personnel Board

Appellants Robert Martin and Ronald Sphar were reinstated to their employment with appellant, California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), by respondent State Personnel Board (the Board) after they successfully challenged their dismissals. The Board awarded Martin and Sphar backpay and benefits under Government Code section 19584, including merit salary adjustments and physical fitness incentive pay (PFIP), and offset that award with the amount of money they had earned from other employers, not including overtime pay, during the four-year period between their dismissals and their reinstatements. The Board also ruled that Sphar should be compensated at salary range K, which he had not yet qualified for at the time of his dismissal.

CDCR petitioned the superior court for a writ of mandate overturning the Board’s decision to include merit salary adjustments and PFIP, and it claimed that the offset should have included overtime pay. The CDCR also challenged the Board’s decision that Sphar would be compensated at salary range K. The superior court granted the petition in part by mandating that the offset include overtime pay. It denied the remainder of…