Judge: DOC must better track employee hours

Cole County Presiding Judge Pat Joyce approved an amended judgment Friday on how the Corrections department will pay current and former Corrections officers who were awarded more than $113 million in unpaid compensation by a Cole County jury, as well as a plan on how the department can better track hours of existing staff.

Joyce heard arguments Thursday afternoon by Attorney Gary Burger, of the Burger Law Firm in St. Louis, who represented the officers, and Assistant Attorney General Joshua Bortnick representing the state and the Department of Corrections. She made her ruling on Friday afternoon.

A lawsuit filed Aug. 14, 2012, accused the department of requiring Corrections officers throughout the state to work before and after assigned shifts without being paid for the mandated work — including going through security, signing in, getting their keys and getting to their duty assignment locations for the day.

The DOC denied it should pay employees for the time spent on pre- or post-shift activities. The department argued the time spent on such activities is minimal, and the pre- or post-work activities are not compensable under state law.

During a civil trial Aug. 10, Joyce ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding the DOC had breached its agreements with the Corrections officers.

The jury heard evidence and reached the verdict the department owes $113,714,632 in damages.

The suit covered 11 years, affecting 13,000 officers. There are 4,500 officers currently working who would be impacted and the rest are retired. Burger said the more the person worked, the more they potentially could get. Under the system they are proposing, the highest amount paid would be around $34,000, but there are many who would get less than $600. He said the average would be around $5,000.

As part of her ruling Friday, Joyce also approved attorney fees to Burger’s law firm, Burger Law and Michael Flannery, and the law firm of Cuneo, Gilbert and LaDuca, LLP, equal to one-third of the settlement — $37,904,877 — and ordered an award of costs to the attorneys in the amount of $219,967.34 in addition to attorney fees. Joyce also ordered the three primary initial plaintiffs in this case, Thomas Hootselle Jr., Daniel Dicus and Oliver Huff, each be granted a $25,000 service award from the settlement.

Joyce approved part of the plan Burger argued for which was a stipulation making the DOC implement a system that would accurately track the amount of time its officers work.

Joyce ordered in no more than 90 days from Friday, the DOC shall implement a system that maintains comprehensive, accurate and reliable records of all time worked by Corrections officers and payment for pre- and post-shift work. DOC also shall make all such records available to the Missouri Corrections Officers Association, the plaintiffs in this case and Joyce for inspection upon request.

Bortnick argued Thursday it would be too much of a burden on the state since there are 21 different facilities affected by the decision. He also said that on Sept. 30, the current labor agreement between Corrections workers and the state would expire; he said putting a new system would be unnecessary.

Burger said his understanding was the last formal collective bargaining agreement between Corrections officers and the state came in 2014. Since then, he said, they have been using the same agreement on a year-to-year basis.

Later this month, both sides are scheduled to appear before Joyce on the state’s motion for a new trial.