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Mismanagement, lack of staff leads to IDOC overtime problems

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Illinois

In a scathing report issued Thursday, Illinois Auditor General William Holland, said state prison workers may have been engaging in “shift swapping,” in which workers used sick time or personal time for their regular shift, but then worked another shift at the overtime rate of pay later that same day.

“While there may be instances where this would be a needed solution to a difficult staff coverage scenario, it could be a sign of abuse of overtime and may be against department policy,” Holland noted in his audit of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The financial effect on taxpayers is that not only does the state pay the employee at the overtime rate for the shift worked in addition to the regular rate for the leave time taken, but the state also pays another employee overtime to cover the shift for which the leave time was used, Holland said.

Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said there is no solid evidence that “shift swapping” occurred. And, he said there may have been good reason for workers to have skipped their scheduled shift.

“It’s not hard to envision a situation where a dad takes an earned vacation day to be sure he can make his daughter’s teachers conference and then receives a call asking if he can work a shift,” Lindall said.

* But before Rauner folks blame this on the union, they should check out the audit…

We requested any union agreements that allow overtime pay on the same day that leave time is taken; however, the Department could not provide any.

Some of these cases might be reasonable, but the unreasonable overtime situation is most definitely a management problem.

* And this…

The Department of Corrections (Department) did not always maintain documentation to support overtime paid to employees. In addition, we identified errors in the overtime pay. […]

At Stateville Correctional Center there is a lack of personnel in key timekeeping and payroll positions. The Timekeeping Supervisor is a security employee (a shift supervisor) that has been temporarily assigned to this position. According to officials another employee in payroll was reassigned from the Warden’s Office. There was no full time Business Manager and a new Business Administrator started the first day we were on site (January 5, 2015). […]

Logan Correctional Center overpaid employees for overtime and compensatory time. A standard work shift is 7.5 hours not including a half hour unpaid lunch and a roll-call period of 15 minutes. If an employee stands roll-call or works through their lunch, these are paid separately from the employee’s regular pay. Compensatory time and overtime at Logan Correctional Center were being accrued and paid at 8 or 8.25 hours per shift instead of 7.5 hours as is required by union contract (RC-6 Agreement Article XII, Sec. 1 d) and CU-500 Agreement Article XII Sec. 1 b)). Therefore, for each overtime shift worked and for every shift worked for compensatory time, employees were being compensated an extra .5 to .75 hours. For the 10 Logan Correctional Center employees we tested for the months of July 2013 and May 2014, we identified 79.5 hours of overpayment for overtime. […]

For one Logan Correctional Center employee, an overtime slip requesting that they receive a half hour paid lunch was denied twice for the same shift; however, when reviewing the payroll report for that time period, it appears they were paid for both denied slips. […]

An employee at Stateville Correctional Center was underpaid 16 hours of overtime. During the following pay period, only an additional two hours of overtime from the previous pay period shortage was paid, leaving the employee 14 hours of unpaid overtime. Additionally, this employee’s annual timesheet showed 12 more hours of overtime than the overtime slips documented.

Sheesh.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:04 pm

Comments

Thats nothing compared to the overtime abuses at IDOT

Comment by foster brooks Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:09 pm
Staffing deficiencies and overtime costs underscore the need for legit sentencing reform and then treatment options to reduce recidivism and reincarceration.

Comment by Politix Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:23 pm
And by-product of “doing more with less” …

Comment by Anyone Remember Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:30 pm
If you have a doctors appointment that takes the biggest part of the day you use a sick day. If called for overtime later in that same day are you supposed to turn it down? The issue is not with working overtime but the 40 hour work week. State workers can take a day off for sick or vacation and still draw time and half in that week. Most private sector jobs require you to get your 40 in before overtime kicks in.

Comment by Nieva Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:32 pm
Gotta love how the AFSCME spokesperson had to invoke some parental obligation in a worker taking time off. Perhaps next time pops will be attending little Timmy’s first t-ball game or reenacting old time radio shows at the local retirement home.

It’s a vacation day. We get it. No state employee owes me any explanation why they are taking a day off they are entitled to.

Comment by nixit71 Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:35 pm
Unless something has changed since my time there, all time sheets were kept by hand. Our time keeper was notorious for making math errors, so I double checked my sheet every month. If a new system was put in place, it may cut down on some of the errors.

Comment by former DOC worker Friday, May 1, 15 @ 12:43 pm
I think some are missing that this was not a
one time or an occasional instance which
would be reasonable. It was the same workers
doing it habitually.

Comment by Michael Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:09 pm
Then do something about those “same workers”.

Comment by CharlieKratos Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:29 pm
Here is Stolworthy’s “Turnaround” memo that Erickson wrote about a few weeks ago. IDOC’s timekeeping is all manual.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w1k1puinjjoeef5/Stolworthy%20FOIA.pdf?dl=0

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:34 pm
The AFSCME contract says overtime will be paid for “all time outside of the normal work hours and/or work days”.

Comment by Union Dues Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:37 pm
This is one place that Government can be run more like a business (we are always looking for examples, right?). If I use any benefit hours in a two week pay period and work overtime to make it up, the benefit hours are taken out of the OT hours and I don’t get OT. Work 88 hours in a period, take a day off, get paid for 80 billable, NOT 96 hours.

Comment by Slugger O'Toole Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:38 pm
When in doubt blame the union. Talk about a one note song.

Comment by Obamas Puppy Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:39 pm
IDOC’s timekeeping is not all manual. Some of the central office people are on an automated timekeeping system of some kind. For some reason they are not using that same system for all of Corrections.

Comment by Union Dues Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:45 pm
You’ve got to make sure the supervisors and the administrative staff are doing their jobs before blaming either the employees or the contract. Otherwise you could change the employees and the contract and the problems still won’t get fixed.

–At least, that’s what I would picture someone with a strong business background saying.

Comment by Earnest Friday, May 1, 15 @ 1:57 pm
=Gotta love how the AFSCME spokesperson had to invoke some parental obligation in a worker taking time off.=

Are you a parent? I don’t find this so far outside the realm of possibility. 9/10 any time I take a vacation or sick day and we haven’t actually traveled anywhere it’s because of a parental obligation.

Comment by Politix Friday, May 1, 15 @ 2:05 pm
==Are you a parent? I don’t find this so far outside the realm of possibility. 9/10 any time I take a vacation or sick day and we haven’t actually traveled anywhere it’s because of a parental obligation.==

Yes, I am a parent.

My point is that neither AFSCME, nor any state employees, owe me any explanation why they are taking an allotted day off. Helping a child or sleeping in a hammock all day…it’s none of my business. I thought it was amusing that the union spokesperson went out of his way to come up with a reason for taking a day off.

Comment by nixit71 Friday, May 1, 15 @ 2:17 pm
==I thought it was amusing that the union spokesperson went out of his way to come up with a reason for taking a day off. ==

I understood entirely. He was producing a scenario where the employee took time off for a planned event, and then got called for later/earlier. As opposed to the accusation that the employee only took time off so that he could get called later/earlier and get overtime. Do you really think that someone wants to take a vacation day (or even worse, a sick day), and then HAVE to work later/earlier anyway?
If they were only going to get paid straight time after using their vacation day, and could say no, don’t you think they would?

If you want to only pay straight time for this, then agree that the vacation or sick time slip will be voided since they worked a later/earlier shift. Allow it to be flex time.

Comment by mythoughtis Friday, May 1, 15 @ 2:52 pm
nixit71:

You actually need some sort of explanation if you were too sick to work 9-5 but then picked up a shift 5-1 making overtime pay.

Caring for a sick child during the school day is one very likely scenerio.

Comment by Juvenal Friday, May 1, 15 @ 3:03 pm
Merit Comp employees are notorious for taking vacation time or time off and submitting EET (equivalent time off). It is not just a union issue.

Comment by Buffy Friday, May 1, 15 @ 3:39 pm
This is a combination of agreed upon Union rules, poor sentencing legislation (aka failed war on drugs), and poor management creating a situation where taxpayers suffer. Very few companies would allow overtime be paid prior to working 40 hours in a week. Very few companies would allow management to run employees so understaffed that it causes the overall expense to be higher. Management at the state should be held responsible for running their departments efficiently and their pay should be tied to efficiency goals.

Comment by Will P Sunday, May 3, 15 @ 9:20 am
Until you do the job, you really have no idea what is at play here…

Comment by Don't know much,but.... Thursday, May 7, 15 @ 7:01 pm