By Patrick Marley
JS Online
Madison — A state equal rights official this month determined the Department of Corrections shorted an officer 35 minutes of pay a week for more than a year and ordered it to pay back wages — a ruling that could lead to the state having to pay millions of dollars to officers who have been treated the same way.
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said Friday the agency would appeal the decision.
The department set a new policy last year that meant officers did not get paid until they showed up at their posts, even though they had to check in for a roll call before that. Paul Mertz, an officer at Redgranite Correctional Institution, filed a complaint with the state Labor Standards Bureau contending he was being shorted pay because of the policy.
The bureau this month ruled Mertz had been denied pay in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and ordered the department to pay him back pay equivalent to 35 minutes of work a week. It also ordered the department to change how it pays all Redgranite officers starting next month.
Now, the union that represents the officers is seeking back pay for officers around the state — about 4,900 in all, according to one union official.
Jeffrey Glick, an equal rights officer at the Labor Standards Bureau, wrote in his July 10 ruling that Mertz is on duty and eligible for pay as soon as he checks in with a supervisor and goes through roll call, even if that is an informal process in Wisconsin prisons. That means he must be paid for his walk of perhaps 5 minutes through the prison to his job post, Glick wrote.
“He is, despite the absence of an actual time clock, ‘on’ the clock at the conclusion of roll call and fitness for duty check, and (Department of Corrections policies) cannot change that fact,” Glick wrote.
The policy started in March 2012 and Mertz filed his complaint two months later. For those eight weeks, Mertz is owed $117. Additionally, he is owed an extra 35 minutes of pay for every week since then, Glick wrote.
Glick’s order does not include the precise amount that Mertz is owed. But if he is paid at the same rate for the entire period, he should receive a total of about $1,400.
Glick also ordered that the department change its policies beginning Aug. 11 to ensure Redgranite officers are paid starting with roll call, rather than when they arrive at their posts.
Brian Cunningham, the interim president of the Wisconsin Association for Law Enforcement, said his union would now seek back pay for about 4,800 other officers around the state.
If the union prevails and the other officers are eligible for payments equivalent to Mertz’s, the state would have to pay about $6.7 million.
Union attorney Timothy Scheffler in a statement called the department’s policy a “wage-theft scheme” that denied officers pay “for time spent attending roll call, equipping themselves with safety and security equipment, moving through the security checkpoints within the institution, coordinating with previous and next shift colleagues, and being ready to respond to any call for action once on the institution’s premises.”
He said the union would sue if necessary to abolish the policy.
Joy Staab, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said the agency would appeal the decision and would not have any comment until the appeals process is complete. The agency has until Thursday to file its appeal.