SACRAMENTO — It’s one more wrinkle testifying to the unprecedented nature of California’s budget woes: Tens of thousands of state workers — nearly all of them, in fact — are working under labor contracts that expired more than a year ago, their futures left in limbo as union leaders slow dance with state negotiators.

There’s little chance of breakthroughs any time soon. But if that sounds like a raw deal for the workers, it’s not.

State employees, by law, continue to receive their existing wages and benefits even after their contracts expire. And in the midst of a fiscal crisis like California’s, in which personnel costs have become a top target for number-crunchers, that means unions have little incentive to sit down at the bargaining table and agree to any drastic cuts.

Meanwhile, as long as the unions continue to negotiate in “good faith,” the state has only limited leverage to extract concessions. Unions remain politically powerful, and even in a fiscal emergency, wresting significant wage and benefit savings is nearly impossible. Instead, the state must pursue other tactics such as furloughs — which, new studies suggest, may not save nearly as much money as officials had hoped.

“I can’t recall the last time there was this many bargaining units without a contract,” said Diego Martin, an expert on union bargaining for the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. “It’s a process of give and take. And in a recession, there’s not a lot to give and take — on either side.”

Since the state’s operating fund began hemorrhaging cash last summer, contract talks have slowed to a crawl, and a handful of tentative deals awaiting approval from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have sat in limbo. Uncertainty over state revenues means pay hikes are off the table, court fights are brewing over furloughs, and there are concerns over how to fund health care for retirees.

In all, 19 of the state’s 21 bargaining units — representing workers from firefighters to microbiologists to custodians — are operating under pacts that expired in 2007 or 2008. Workers have gone without annual raises, but the state has had to shoulder the lion’s share of rising health care premiums.

Only the union representing California Highway Patrol workers and officers has a contract in place, after its members agreed earlier this year to a key concession: increasing the amount of money contributed toward their pensions. But even though it was a three-year deal, most of it retroactively covered the past two years CHP workers were without a contract — so the new pact is set to expire in July.

Another bargaining unit, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, has been without a contract since 2006 but is working under state-imposed wages after battling with Schwarzenegger’s administration. The politically potent union, which represents the state’s prison guards, negotiated steep salary increases under then-Gov. Gray Davis, but Schwarzenegger has resisted new pay hikes.

“The unions have known for quite some time that there’s no money available for pay increases, which is part of the reason why bargaining is moving at a slow pace,” said Lynelle Jolley, spokeswoman for the governor’s Department of Personnel Administration.

Christopher Voight, staff director for the 3,000-worker California Association of Professional Scientists, blames the state. He said his union is willing to discuss increasing their contributions to retirees’ health care costs, but that state negotiators have “refused consistently” to put up any meaty contract proposals.

“There is no progress being made,” he said.

The state’s largest union, Service Employees International Local 1000, is perhaps the closest to putting a new deal in place, but even that remains elusive. Its 95,000 members make up nearly half of the state’s bargaining units.

In February, the union ratified a contract that would reduce the monthly furloughs ordered by the governor from three days to one; in exchange, the workers gave up two paid holidays and accepted reduced overtime pay. But before the deal could be put into effect, the Legislature was overtaken by a budget crisis during the spring and summer.

Lawmakers were prepared to finally accept the contract in the closing hours of this year’s legislative session, but it was held up amid a partisan spat in the Senate.

“Our situation is different from the other unions,” said SEIU spokesman Jim Zamora. “We signed an agreement; it hasn’t passed. Getting that bill passed, that’s our priority.”

But Martin, the legislative analyst, held out little hope any new pacts would be sealed either this year or next, what with the budget on one side and the fire and brimstone of election year politics on the other.

“I’m sure they’re trying,” he said. “But they’d just as well wait for the next governor and a better economy.”

Contact Denis C. Theriault at 916-441-4651.