Agreement announced to end strike at prisons

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Albion Correctional Facility is shown last week. The facility, a women’s prison, is among the prisons in the state where corrections officers and sergeants have been on strike since Feb. 18.

An agreement has been reached to end a strike among corrections officers and sergeants, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced late Thursday night.

Corrections officers and sergeants need to return to work by Saturday to avoid discipline for being on strike, but could still be subject to fines.

The agreement will minimize mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts, increase overtime pay and temporarily suspend the HALT Act, which COs said made the prisons less safe for staff and inmates.

“My top priority is the safety of all New Yorkers, and for the past 11 days, I have deployed every possible State resource to protect the well-being of correction officers, the incarcerated population and local communities across New York,” Hochul said in a statement Thursday night.

“Working with a mediator, we have reached a consent award to address many of the concerns raised by correction officers, put DOCCS back on the path to safe operations, respect the rights of incarcerated individuals and prevent future unsanctioned work stoppages,” Hochul said. “I have the utmost respect and gratitude for the correction officers, civilian DOCCS employees, National Guard personnel and other staff who have done their absolute best to maintain order in our correctional facilities during this challenging period.”

The agreement was announced following four days of mediation between the corrections officers’ union and state officials from the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and the Office of Employee Relations.

Martin Scheinman, the mediator, announced terms of the agreement:

• DOCCS will temporarily suspend programming elements of the HALT Act for 90 days and will evaluate the operations, safety, and security of the facilities relative to staffing levels and determine whether re-instituting the suspended elements of HALT would create an unreasonable risk to the safety and security of the incarcerated individuals and staff. This analysis will be done on a facility-by-facility basis and will be ongoing.

• The “Circuit Breaker” staffing metric analysis shall be used upon the conclusion of the suspension of HALT-related programming. On high impact days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday when less staff is available – DOCCS will deploy the “Circuit Breaker” staffing metric. That will determine if a facility-wide emergency exists due to inadequate staffing levels that would create a significant and unreasonable risk to the incarcerated, staff or facility.

• If the staffing vacancies are at or above 30 percent of the plot plan, the following action will be taken to avoid 24-hour mandatory overtime: Facility will close posts in order to address the shortfall. If still not sufficient staffing, then the facility will suspend general population programming. If still not sufficient staffing, then facility will suspend HALT Act provisions which the commissioner has operational discretion.

• Changes to Overtime – The joint goal is to minimize and work towards eliminating anyone working 24-hour mandatory overtime.

The parties agree if a correction officer or sergeant volunteers and works 4 shifts of overtime in a two-week pay period, they will not be mandated to work an additional shift in that pay period. A “shift” shall be defined as an eight-hour tour of duty. Employees who engage in shift swapping are not excluded from this incentive or management’s ability to mandate.

(If an employee is mandated to work an overtime shift after working two voluntary overtime shifts in a week, the employer shall pay a $750 penalty to the employee for violating the voluntary overtime agreement.)

• Weekend Voluntary Overtime Differential – any correction officer or sergeant who volunteers and works overtime on Friday, Saturday or Sunday will receive a pay differential of $100 per shift worked on such day.

• Committee on Plot Plan Efficiency – The parties jointly agree to establish a committee to analyze each facilities staffing and operational inefficiencies with the goal of providing more relief to existing staff. As part of the review, an independent specialist and the committee will review all post orders for potential consolidation or elimination, realignment of non-security specific tasks and conduct a review of both 8-hour and 12-hour staffing plans in order to provide more relief to existing staff.

• Legal Mail – DOCCS shall investigate and pursue a contract with a qualified vendor to provide equipment and services for the screening of all incarcerated individual legal mail in an effort to further curtail the introduction of drugs into correctional facilities. Such screening shall not include, in any form, the review of the communications within legal mail.

• Members on Approved Leave – The parties agree to continue to resolve any outstanding issues involving members on pre-approved leave for FMLA, Workers’ Compensation, Paid Parental Leave, long-term sick, bereavement, sick leave at half pay, etc., but not vacation and personal leave, who were ordered to prematurely return to work during the strike.

• Strike-Related Discipline – DOCCS shall not issue notices of discipline under the collective bargaining agreement for workers who engaged in the strike so long as the employee returned to work by Saturday. This does not include any Taylor Law fines that may be incurred.

• The National Guard will remain in a support posture and begin to draw down as staff return to work. National Guard that remain in place will be used to help prevent an employee from being mandated to work a 24-hour overtime shift.

• Continuation of 2.5 Overtime – The State will continue the 2.5 overtime rate for all overtime worked for 30 days from the date of this award, Feb. 27.