September 5, 2008

Correction staff, county settle comp-time lawsuit

By John Ferro
Poughkeepsie Journal

Dutchess County correction officers and other staff are now able to take compensatory time off more easily, and in some cases, convert that time to pay for health insurance premiums, under an agreement reached with the county.

The two sides have settled a lawsuit that accused the county of violating federal labor laws. The suit was filed by the Dutchess County Sheriff's Employees Association on behalf of nearly 200 former and current county correction officers, sergeants, lieutenants and related positions.

It alleged the county failed to provide compensatory days off - commonly called "comp time" - to correction officers in a timely manner.

Public-sector employers may grant employees time off in lieu of overtime, provided certain conditions are met. The law requires employers to do so in a timely manner, though what "timely" means can vary from court to court.

The lawsuit also claimed the county had not been paying those officers cash when their comp time totals exceeded certain thresholds established in the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The lawsuit was filed in June. It was formally dismissed in federal district court last month.

Todd Mikus, the lead plaintiff in the case and a sergeant at the jail, said the settlement terms were reached amicably "in one meeting." Mikus is president of the Dutchess County Sheriff's Employees Association.

Keith Byron, the county's lead attorney on the case, could not be reached for comment.

The county does not have to pay any damages, but will pay the union's legal fees. By reaching a quick agreement, the county avoided having to hire an outside firm to argue the case in federal court.

The agreement ensures jail staff will be granted their request for time off so long as there are volunteers to cover that request.

The volunteers are drawn from a pool of officers who have signed up to work overtime. The size of the pool and the ability to grant the comp time typically depends on the time of year and other constraints.

An officer requesting a comp day during the peak summer vacation season may not be as likely to find a volunteer as one who does so during another time of year.

Though correction officers have always been able to volunteer for overtime, that pool typically had not been used to grant comp time requests, even if there were enough volunteers to do so. Instead, those requests frequently had been denied or deferred.

"The membership," Mikus said, "is enjoying a benefit we did not have before."

The agreement also reduces the cap on the amount of comp time an officer can accrue each year from 480 to 360 hours.

And it allows officers who have notified the county of their intention to retire to have the dollar value of their comp time applied to their health insurance premiums.

This piece of the deal saves the county from having to pay a large lump sum to a retiring officer for comp time accrued in that officer's final year.

Instead, the county can parcel out that balance by paying for the officer's quarterly health insurance premiums. The prior 480-hour limit remains for officers in their final year of service, though this total is rarely reached.

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