The Missouri Supreme Court vacated and remanded a $113 million back pay award benefiting corrections officers to the Cole County Circuit Court but upheld the trial court’s ruling that their time must be compensated if they are on duty and expected to respond to inmate emergencies.
“The portion of the circuit court’s judgment determining MDOC must compensate the corrections officers for time spent retrieving keys and radios and time spent monitoring and supervising offenders while not on post is affirmed,” wrote Judge Patricia Breckenridge in the June 1 ruling. “The remainder of the circuit court’s judgment is vacated, and the cause is remanded.”
The Missouri Corrections Officers Association (MCOA) whose members are employed by the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) sued their employer, alleging it never paid officers for time spent performing preshift and post-shift activities, such as biometric identification, pass through security, report to a supervisor, retrieve equipment, walk to their posts, and exchange information with other corrections officers.
“Insofar as the circuit court’s judgment determined time spent picking up radios and keys and time they are on duty and expected to respond to emergent incidents is compensable, the circuit court’s judgment is affirmed,” stated Judge Breckenridge in the decision. “In all other respects, including the award of damages, the circuit court’s judgment is vacated.”
The jury returned a verdict awarding the corrections officers $113 million. Some 14,000 corrections officers employed within 21 MDOC correctional facilities statewide stand to benefit.
“The Missouri Supreme Court is basically asking us to get a better read on what the actual damages are,” said Tim Cutt, employee representative for the MCOA. “It could be more than $113 million because that $113 million amount came about in 2018 when we won the lawsuit in Cole County Court to begin with.”
Under the continuous workday rule, all preshift and post-shift activities after the first and before the last principal activity of either retrieving or returning keys and radios or supervising inmates are also compensable, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Regulation.
“We are carefully reviewing the opinion,” said Gary Burger, attorney for the MCOA. “We look forward to continuing to fight for the hard-working and underpaid women and men corrections officers in Missouri. We will get ready for another trial on damages in the Cole County Circuit Court with the guidance provided by the Missouri Supreme Court.”
As previously reported, the MCOA is involved in a separate lawsuit against the Missouri Office of Administration (MOA) alleging that the state agency is withholding union dues that are normally paid bi-monthly to the Missouri Corrections Officers Association (MCOA).
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem is being asked to reverse the state’s decision to revoke the association’s payroll power.
“We had trial on that case in October of last year,” Cutt told the St. Louis Record. “We’re still waiting on a ruling from Judge Beetem.”