By ESTEBAN PARRA
The News Journal
09/02/2004
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's administration tentatively agreed with the state corrections officers union Wednesday to grant two improvements sought by officers in their sixth week of protesting working conditions: quicker eligibility for pensions and pay increases linked to the number of years they spend on the job.
Protesting corrections officers have refused voluntary overtime in the prison system's Court & Transportation unit, which has hampered its ability to transport inmates, particularly to mandatory court hearings. The officers will get a chance to view the proposals and offer their opinions on them during two meetings today.
Union leaders and state officials have until Nov. 15 to present their recommendations to Minner and co-chairs of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee. The plans proposed Wednesday would require approval from the Legislature. For the plans to take effect in the next budget year, which starts July 1, they would have to be approved before June 30.
"It's a step forward," said David Knight, senior vice president of the corrections officers union. "There are still questions that have to be answered."
In the proposed pay scale, officers would automatically rise in rank after a specified number of years of service. Along with the promotion would come two pay increases.
The plans also call for reducing by five years the length of time on the job required for pension eligibility. Employees now must put in 30 years.
How that would be paid for still must be resolved.
"Right now you have one eyebrow go up," Knight said. "You will have the other eyebrow go up when it goes to the Legislature and passes."
The proposals would help attract future employees and retain those already on the job, Knight said. Now, he said, the department is losing three people for each one it hires.
"This is a continuation of our efforts to address their concerns, which are our concerns, on the issues of compensation, recruitment and retainment," said Beth Welch, Department of Correction spokeswoman.
Last month, corrections commissioner Stanley W. Taylor Jr. met with union leaders and presented an incentive and retention program that would award a $500 bonus to new recruits and their recruiters: $250 would be presented to each at graduation and $250 at the new employee's one-year anniversary. That went into effect Wednesday.
Taylor also requested the Legislature approve a 5 percent raise for most corrections officers that could go into effect in January.
Corrections officers have refused voluntary overtime since July 26 to protest working conditions including vacancies that require the use of forced and voluntary overtime. Of the 1,830 corrections officer positions in Delaware's penal system, 295 were vacant, officials said. Those vacancies include posts held by officers away on military duty.
A union official has said staff shortages contributed to several security lapses in recent months, including an inmate taking a counselor hostage in July and raping her during a nearly seven-hour standoff. The incident ended when the rapist was shot to death by a corrections officer.
Although officers are not working voluntary overtime in the transportation unit, they continue to work forced overtime and voluntary overtime inside the prisons.
Of the 149 inmates who were supposed to be transported on Wednesday, 18 were not, a much smaller portion than when the protest began. In late July, close to half the inmates scheduled for court hearings on some days were not transported.
Prison officials have since begun compensating for staffing shortages in the transportation unit by assigning training officers there.
Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
