California prison guards get COVID bonuses. Other unions still hope for hazard pay
Correctional officers and maintenance staff work in the same prisons and spent more than a year exposed to a high risk of COVID-19 at their jobs.
The officers are getting nearly $5,000 in pandemic bonuses through a new bargaining agreement with the state.
The maintenance staff is not getting the special pay, even though they too have struck a deal with the state.
So far, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is the only state government union to bargain successfully for pandemic-related hazard pay. Others still have hope they’ll get some extra money for their members soon.
California might have more money available to give bonuses to other employees through the $26 billion it’s getting from the federal COVID-19 relief package passed in March. That law allows governors to distribute hazard pay bonuses.
California in July expects to hear from the federal government on how the state can spend the money, Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said in an e-mail, and that’s when other unions can make a case for a share of the bonuses.
The prison guards are getting their bonuses — a total of $137 million spread over two years — from the state’s general fund. They will also have the right to negotiate with the state for a cut of the federal relief package.
That’s irking the union representing blue-collar workers, many of whom work in prisons. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has also criticized the bonuses for the prison guards, saying they “have no clear state benefit.”
“The frustrating part is that recognition should be across the board for everyone who had to work in this pandemic and was deemed essential,” said Brandy Johnson, a representative for the International Union of Operating Engineers representing blue-collar state workers. “The fact that they recognize some groups and not others is so disrespectful and disingenuous.”
Why bonuses for California prison guards?
The state and the union representing prison guards both said the bonuses are intended to help the workers address the significant effects of COVID-19 on their health and wellness. The agreement provides two bonuses of $2,496 in 2021 and in 2022.
As of June, 28 employees of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had died from the coronavirus. At least 18 of the prison employees were members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, according to the union.
“The first thing is an acknowledgment that the work prison guards do is very difficult and stressful,” said Nick Schroeder of the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Legislators approved the state’s contract with prison guards Monday, calling those workers essential.
“Their daily lives are not ever within the pleasant atmosphere,” Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Red Bluff), a former state parole chief, said of the prison guards. “It is a risky business. It is a depressing business.”
Other kinds of benefits exist for other workers, albeit in a non-pandemic context. Starting 2019, most state workers represented by SEIU Local 1000 began receiving about $3,100 per year to help pay for their health insurance.
Schroeder said the pandemic bonus for prison guards may not have a big impact on hiring and retaining those workers.
“While the administration states these payments would be intended to recognize (prison guard union) members’ “increased Health and Wellness needs tied to the COVID-19 pandemic” the administration does not cite increased turnover or other data to justify this payment,” he wrote in a recent report.
The state could have also tied at least a portion of the pandemic bonus to employees getting vaccinated, LAO said in its analysis. Only about 52% of corrections department’s staff is fully vaccinated, compared to California’s overall rate of 59%.
“Tying the payment to vaccination would be a simple way for the payment to meet its stated objective by providing greater protection to the broader prison employee and inmate population,” the legislative analysis of the deal said.
Meanwhile, Johnson noted some of her union members such as custodians and plumbers work side by side with those incarcerated. But those workers have yet to receive a bonus, she said.
“Correctional officers were not the only ones in those facilities,” Johnson said. “They’re favoring one life over another in the same environment.”
Hazard pay ahead for state workers?
Pandemic bonuses could be on their way to other California state workers in the coming months.
Contract agreements announced in June include a provision saying California will meet with bargaining units to discuss “essential worker premium pay” when federal and state guidelines are released on the matter.
The guidelines should address a number of issues, such as who’s eligible.
In May, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a fact sheet outlining what the guidelines could look like. A “broad range of essential workers who must be physically present at their jobs” such as janitors, sanitation workers and social service staff could be eligible for the pay, according to the fact sheet.
The bonus should also be capped, so it doesn’t benefit workers making more than 150% of the state or county average annual wage, whichever is greater. The government would need to provide specific justification if it wants the bonus to go to higher-income workers, according to the fact sheet.
Beyond those provisions, the state should have some flexibility in providing premium pay, said Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Kinder, however, said it will be tricky for states to pay some workers differently than the others. States may decide to pay a flat amount for all employees eligible based on how many hours they’ve worked, she said.
“There’s a pretty clear line; if you have to go to a workplace and be exposed to COVID, whether it’s a nursing home or a hospital or a social service agency, those workers are all at risk,” Kinder said. But “there’s no good data on what makes one job 20% more dangerous than others.”
Cliff Tillman, a chief negotiator for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2620 representing 5,000 state social and health care workers, said his union won’t separate specific employees when negotiating pandemic bonuses. The union will also push the state to give bonuses to those who had partially worked from home during the pandemic, he said.
“State workers who were required to perform public work, who did have to go into the office, they should be receiving the essential worker pay,” he said. “We’ll treat essential workers as essential workers.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 5:25 AM.
