Legislation to reduce the number of paid holidays for California's 200,000 state workers has died in an Assembly committee.

AB 2460 would have reduced the state's 14 paid holidays to 12. Each state department and agency would have decided for itself which two to cut.

The Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee rejected the bill by an 8-1 vote Wednesday.

Assemblyman John Campbell, an Irvine Republican who proposed AB 2460, touted the bill as a way to improve service to the public and save more than $20 million in overtime pay for staffing essential health and safety programs on holidays.

The measure had stiff opposition from state labor groups.