California prison guards in line for pay raises

By ANDY FURILLO
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association may be miles away from getting a new labor contract with the state, but its members appear to be in line for a pay raise sooner rather than later, thanks to the union's victory in a grievance it filed a year ago.

In a decision dated Saturday, an arbitrator ruled that the CCPOA's 31,000 members are entitled a pay raise based on compensation increases the state gave to the California Highway Patrol. The prison officers' pay is linked to the CHP's union contract, and the arbitrator ruled that health insurance and holiday leave-time bumps the state gave over the years to the patrol must translate to more salary for the CCPOA members.

Arbitrator Alexander Cohn of Napa gave the state 20 days to recalculate the prison officers' pay formula to bring it in line with the CHP's benefit boosts. The arrangement would work out to a $100 million to $200 million pay raise for CCPOA members out of taxpayer coffers, according to the Department of Personnel Administration.

The arbitrator's award would amount to a 3.125 percent pay raise for CCPOA members retroactive to July 1, 2005, plus an additional amount based on the reconfigured health care benefit that went to the CHP - four months after the prison officers' contract expired and at a time when there has been little progress in its negotiations with the state.

"Imagine that," said CCPOA Vice President Lance Corcoran. "One might think we designed that."

Asked if the union did file the grievance last year while looking ahead to potential problems with the new contract now being negotiated, Corcoran said, "Obviously, going back, we knew there was a dispute and that the dispute could have a monetary value."The state can appeal the arbitrator's award to the courts, but personnel department spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley said the agency's attorneys are still reviewing the decision and have not made a decision.

Jolley said it is "unclear" how the decision plays into the ongoing contract talks. But she added that the ruling "does clarify the need for us to continue reviewing the expired contract, to see where change may be necessary."

Under the CCPOA's five-year agreement with the state signed in 2001, the prison cops' pay scales were set at a monthly rate $666 below the salaries of CHP officers. The union argued in its grievance that the holiday leave hours the state bestowed on CHP officers in lieu of a pay raise increased the difference between the two officer groups above the $666 level. In the meantime, the state also increased its share of CHP officers' health care costs from 80 percent to 85 percent - another boost that the arbitrator said must be carried over to prison pay.

In the grievance, the guards' union argued that the state purposely sought to "manipulate" the CHP officers' pay formula to the detriment of the CCPOA.

"Absolutely, positively," Corcoran said. "Almost every chance this administration has had to be honorable, they've gone in the opposite direction."

The state said it offered the CCPOA the added health care benefit, but that the union rejected it. Personnel officials also testified during the arbitration that the union also rejected the holiday leave benefit.