By Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON — Correctional officers have dropped a lawsuit claiming they were being shorted pay for a small period of time every day.
The officers sued in August 2013 and sought to make the case a class-action lawsuit that would apply to thousands of officers across the state. The daily amounts for individuals were small, but when added together over years, millions of dollars were at stake.
Dane County Judge Rhonda Lanford this August declined to grant the plaintiffs class action status, meaning each officer would have to sign onto a lawsuit. That prompted the group of 14 that brought the case to drop it on Monday.
“To litigate the cases individually was not reasonable in terms of cost,” the group’s attorney, Sally Stix, said by email. “The individuals may pursue new cases. I do not know if they are doing so.”
The case was brought with the assistance of the Wisconsin Association for Law Enforcement union and was aimed at ultimately benefiting about 3,000 officers.
The development is the latest setback for correctional officers who contend they are missing out on pay because they don’t go on the clock until they reach their assigned posts. They say they should start being paid once they check in with their superiors and pick up equipment.
The policy on shift start times was implemented in 2012, a year after Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers all but eliminated collective bargaining for officers and most other public workers.
Last month, in a separate case, the District 2 Court of Appeals in Madison ruled against Paul Mertz, an officer at Redgranite Correctional Institution who raised the same issue in his lawsuit. The appeals court unanimously found the time Mertz spends checking in for the work day is not time for which he can be paid.
The decision was rendered by Judges JoAnne Kloppenburg, Paul Lundsten and Gary Sherman. Kloppenburg is running for state Supreme Court in the spring.