“If you were eligible, heck yeah we would love to give you a promotion,” Bilsten said. But “there was nothing that they were entitled to or there was a guarantee.”
Attorneys for the initiative backers wrote in court papers that nothing in the 2017 law prevents a petition company from boosting pay based on production. Regardless, they were all paid by the hour, not per signature, the lawyers said.
“Arizona law does not – and constitutionally cannot – ban paid circulation or preclude the use of productivity standards or performance metrics in setting the hourly pay rate for ‘paid circulators’ or in deciding whether to terminate ‘paid circulators,’” attorney Roopali Desai wrote.
Testimony about the 100-word summary that petition signers saw is expected later in the trial.
The initiative is the latest outgrowth from a teachers strike two years ago that highlighted low wages for educators and a slow rebound from budget cuts enacted during the Great Recession. The walkout…
