By Mary Sell
The Decatur Daily
MONTGOMERY — The amount of overtime paid to state employees increased 32 percent from 2009-14. State agency officials said staffing cuts played a significant role in the increase.
Agencies paid about 8,800 workers $41.4 million in overtime in calendar year 2014, according to the state personnel department. In 2009, 10,078 workers received $31.3 million in overtime.
As of late June, agencies spent $18.6 million in overtime this calendar year, according to the personnel department.
“It has to be because staffing has been cut and because senior people leave and are replaced by lower-level people who receive overtime,” said Jackie Graham, director of personnel.
Budget cuts in recent years meant state agencies had to shed several thousand employees. The Alabama Department of Transportation lost several hundred employees in recent years, director John Cooper said last week. Increased work because of two snowfalls and road prep for two other expected snowstorms in 2014 also increased overtime to the department, he said.
And there may be some overtime related to some construction projects.
“But overtime is cheaper than headcounts,” Cooper said. “There are costs with reducing your headcount, and overtime is part of that. But it is much cheaper to pay one person some overtime than it is to maintain the total cost of additional people.”
Overtime in DOC
The lion’s share of the overtime last year went to the chronically understaffed Department of Corrections.
In 2009, the Alabama Department of Corrections employed 3,121 correctional officers, officer trainees and correctional supervisors. In 2014, that number had decreased by about 200, putting ADOC’s correctional security staff level at 69 percent, department spokesman Bob Horton said.
According to the personnel department, DOC’s overtime was up more than $11 million from 2009 to 2014. Last year, 3,028 employees received about $24.8 million in overtime.
“Wardens use overtime to compensate for the shortage of correctional officers and security staff,” Horton said.
Overtime helps keep the inmate-to-officer ratio manageable. There are about 24,500 inmates in DOC custody, and facilities operate eight- to 16-hour shifts 24 hours a day year round, Horton said.
The department launched a statewide recruiting and retention campaign to increase the number of correctional officers. In May, the Alabama Corrections Academy graduated 107 new officers, and there are three classes remaining in 2015. The starting salary for a corrections officer is $28,516.
Funding from grants
Public Safety, which this year became the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, had about $5.6 million in overtime last year, but that doesn’t mean the agency incurred the cost, spokeswoman Anna Morris said.
It offers limited overtime based on the availability of grants and reimbursements from other agencies, including transportation and colleges and universities.
The grants are generally geared toward specific enforcement, such as peak travel periods like the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
Employees who work overtime that is not grant-funded or reimbursable receive compensatory time rather than wages, Morris said. For example, the troopers who worked the Selma anniversary events in March received compensatory time.
One agency to see a significant drop in overtime is the Alabama Department of Mental Health. It closed several hospitals in recent years, including the North Alabama Regional Hospital last month.