The issue involving pay for public school substitute teachers is back in courts.

Two substitute teachers filed a Circuit Court lawsuit Friday asking for a 4 percent increase they say was mandated by a 2006 law. The suit seeks to represent more than 1,000 substitutes who work for the Department of Education each day.

The suit said the law, Act 263, tied pay increases for the subs based on increases for Licensed Class II Teachers as mandated through collective bargaining agreements. But when Class II Teachers received a 4 percent increase starting on Aug. 1, the department failed to provide a similar wage increase for the substitute teachers, the lawsuit said.

The suit asks for a declaration that the department failed to implement Act 263's mandate for the higher pay for the substitutes.

Greg Knudsen, department spokesman, said the department won't be able to comment at this stage of the litigation.

Substitute teachers without a bachelor's degree receive $125 a day; teachers with the degree $136; and teachers with teaching credentials $147 a day, according to Knudsen.

The suit was filed by substitute teachers David Garner of Maui and Allen Kliternick of Honolulu.

The two also were involved in an earlier lawsuit seeking about $30 more each day for about 9,000 substitute teachers who worked from Nov. 1, 2000, to June 30, 2005. The total amount was estimated to be as much as $15 million.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn ruled in favor of the substitutes last year. She held that the state failed to pay the teachers by a formula set in 1996.

The state has appealed the decision.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.