NORTH PROVIDENCE — Faced with the threat of wide-scale layoffs, members of the largest state employees’ union on Tuesday approved a $36-million pay-concession package that trades eight workdays without pay this year — and another four next year — for a two-year no-layoff guarantee, and the opportunity to recoup lost wages in extra paid time off or cash later.

The members of Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees approved the deal 1,757 to 1,264. Council 94 president J. Michael Downey said he was “called a lot of names, not all of them nice” as he went from one membership meeting to another pitching the proposal as a way to save jobs and provide some hope of “labor peace till 2011.”

“We took care of our co-workers today. There will be no more layoffs,” he told a gaggle of microphones and television cameras.

“I know this was a very tough vote for the membership that I represent,” Downey said. “But we believe it is the right vote to keep people working … [and] it is our hope and desire that the governor of the State of Rhode Island along with the General Assembly, senators, representatives and the public in Rhode Island will once again see that the state employees have done their share and that we can’t do no more. This is it for us … and I am very happy.”

With a total of 4,003 members, Council 94 represents more than a third of the state’s 11,000-plus unionized workers.

Governor Carcieri thanked Council 94 members for ratifying what he called his “job-saving proposal.”

“I realize this was a difficult decision, and I appreciate the willingness and understanding of the state employees for choosing to be partners in managing our way through this economic crisis,” he said. “Because of the cooperation of Council 94, and the many other state employee unions that have already ratified the agreement, we will save $36 million in personnel costs over the next two years, keep people working and preserve state services."

In the wake of the Council 94 vote, spokesmen for the courts, the legislature, the governor and the other top statewide officers, with two exceptions, said they would impose the same no-pay workdays on their non-union employees, under the same terms. That includes Carcieri, himself, and the judges. A spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said: “He hasn’t decided yet.”

The other exception is the state’s $14,018-a-year part-time lawmakers whose pay is governed by the state Constitution.

The cost-cutting proposal requires eight workdays without pay during this budget year, and four next year. It will also delay by six months the 3-percent raise the workers expected in July 2010.

But the workers can take as many as 15 extra paid days off in exchange, or eschew some of those paid days off and collect a portion of their lost wages — up to five days worth — in cash if they wait until they leave state service. They would also get a two-year no-layoff pledge.

In the private sector, a pay cut generally means a permanent reduction in a worker’s base pay. Under the terms of the deal union leaders negotiated with the Carcieri administration, the state intends to use the pre-reduction hourly rate for each employee in calculating their next step increase, longevity increase and pay raise, according to the state personnel office.

The package is a key piece of Carcieri’s plan for producing the $67.8 million in unidentified personnel savings he was directed to come up with by the state budget that lawmakers crafted — and he signed –– for the year that began on July 1, 2009. Carcieri made known his intent to lay off as many as 1,000 state workers if the unions rejected his plan.

The savings also hinge on the General Assembly allowing him to withhold the final $32-million installment this year of the reimbursement payments the state promised cities and towns in exchange for reducing their local car-taxes. For the state workers, most of the controversy resulted from Carcieri’s bid for more leeway to move employees around state government. That aspect of the proposal pitted younger union workers worried about losing their jobs against older workers, upset that reorganization language might run rough-shod over their seniority rights.

An arm of the state’s probation and parole union has rejected the pact and some unions have not yet voted. Unions representing 6,988 of the state’s 11,000-plus unionized employees have approved the pact.

On Monday, the General Assembly’s business director, Marisa White, advised legislative employees that House Speaker William J. Murphy had decided, as chairman of the Joint Committee on Legislative Affairs, that they would go the same numbers of days without pay, under the same terms.

White wrote: “You have taken on your responsibility as public servants in assisting with the reduction of the state deficit without complaint during the past furlough day and years of significant health-care co-share increases and it is sincerely appreciated.”

kgregg@projo.com