A federal judge in Oakland isn’t holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials in contempt of court, but she is telling them exactly how to deal with her ruling that In-Home Supportive Services workers’ wages can’t be cut as the state had planned.

The governor and Legislature had agreed that the state’s share of IHSS providers’ wages – funded through a mix of federal, state and county funds – effective July 1 should be based on a $9.50 per hour maximum; providers in Alameda and Contra Costa County currently get $11.50 per hour. State officials said the IHSS reduction will save the state $98.1 million in the coming fiscal year.

U.S. District Claudia Wilken last month granted a preliminary injunction to the Service Employees International Union – which along with IHSS clients from around the state had sued to stop the July 1 salary cut for many of the state’s 400,000 IHSS workers — ruling the state can’t make the cut without first analyzing its impact on the efficiency, economy, quality and accessibility of care.

The SEIU filed papers last week saying the state is “refusing to permit counties that want to maintain their pre-July 1, 2009 wage rates to do so, and are telling such counties that the lower wage rate, based on the implementation of the statute this Court enjoined, will remain in effect for at least 60 days, over the counties’ objections.” The union wanted Wilken to hold the state in contempt of court and fine it $500,000 a day; the state basically said it was an accounting problem caused by Wilken’s injunction coming too late to immediately reprogram the state’s payment system.

“While the Court does not find State Defendants in contempt of the Court’s preliminary injunction order, their manner of compliance has not carried out the intent of the order. Apparently, the Court’s order was not sufficiently specific,” Wilken wrote in her order Monday.

The new order and an amended preliminary injunction command the state – by the close of business today – to rescind its approval of all county rate reduction requests submitted after Feb. 20, and to reinstate the pre-July 1 rates. The state must notify all affected counties today, and tell those counties it will pay 65 percent of the non-federal share of the pre-July 1 rate up to $12.10 for hours worked on or after that date. A copy of the court’s order must be sent to the counties as well.