Labor department files complaint against Corrections

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a federal complaint against the Washington state Department of Corrections [DOC] alleging violations of overtime and record-keeping requirements involving nearly 800 employees.

The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division conducted an investigation covering the period from Nov. 28, 2005, to May 30, 2008, and found that community-corrections officers, community-corrections specialists and office assistants across the state were not paid overtime. In addition, the DOC failed to maintain accurate time records for all hours worked.

"The total amount of back wages owed the employees has not been determined, but is expected to be in the millions of dollars," Donna Hart, director of the Wage and Hour Division's Seattle District Office, said in news release.

Karen Daniels, DOC's assistant secretary for community corrections, said that managers don't keep their employees from taking overtime, but that many corrections employees are hard workers who often don't put in for overtime. She said that the DOC is trying to figure out how much money they owe employees and "get to the bottom line."

"It isn't a job that is covered adequately by an 8-to-5 schedule," Daniels said. "They [employees] hear over the years there are budget pressures. They just feel some responsibility and conscientiousness."

Sheralynn Andrews, the DOC office assistant who brought the case against her employer, said she has worked countless overtime hours since the corrections agency hired her in 2003.

"Employees are afraid to put in the overtime. They have been constantly told for years there is no money in the budget," Andrews said. "You get disciplined if you don't have prior approval [for overtime] and you get disciplined if you can't keep up with the workload."

Andrews said she and others brought their overtime complaints to the union but nothing was ever done.

Tim Welsh, spokesman for the Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents about 1,500 DOC employees, contends that the union has been working for years to ensure that corrections workers are given overtime pay.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, covered workers must be paid the federal minimum wage of $5.85 an hour, and time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 in one week.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com