110818 - Corrupticut's"The Overtime Scam" (Prison Head Nurse Jennifer Brown Doubles her income)
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Mort Zuckerman
Aug 18, 2011, 6:15:03 PM8/18/11
to corrupticourts
courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-overtime-
abuse-20110816,0,1932870.story
Courant.com
Overtime Abuse Needlessly Burdens Taxpayers
Prison Nurses: State should use part-time employees at regular pay to
save money
8:26 PM EDT, August 16, 2011
Advertisement
Here's yet another example of how some state employees take advantage
of the system to amass huge amounts of overtime pay — and expanded
pension benefits — all at overburdened taxpayers' expense.
The Courant's Jon Lender reported Sunday that managers at the
University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington — which operates
state prison medical units under a formal agreement with the
Department of Correction — choose well-paid full-time nurses to work
pension-fattening overtime hours, sometimes at a double-time rate,
when there are so-called per-diem nurses available to work the same
hours for substantially less pay.
As one part-time nurse complained in a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy
in March: "There are nurses being paid up to $100 an hour while I sit
home ready, willing and able to do the job for much less — $35 an
hour, no pension, no benefits."
Shame on the UConn Health Center administration for letting the full-
time nurses run up the overtime tab. That's the kind of policy that's
put the cost of state government on an unsustainable course, and it
must be changed.
One nurse, for example, made $106,000 in regular wages in fiscal
2009-10, and $94,000 in overtime.
Bowing To The Union
There is no contract provision or state law that says the meaty
overtime assignments must go to full-time nurses. The per-diem and
full-time nurses are, by and large, equally experienced and qualified.
The truth is that prison nurse overtime is more expensive than it has
to be because the health center administrators have been kowtowing to
the union — New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199/SEIU
— that represents prison nurses.
Last year, managers and the union reached an informal, expensive
accommodation — expensive for taxpayers — in which per-diem nurses'
hours were limited to two weekly shifts totaling 16 hours, giving far-
more-expensive full-time nurses more overtime work.
Managers didn't have to cave in to the union. They just did.
The Overtime Scam
Total overtime at the prison medical units apparently has dropped
since 2007 — a commendable development. The executive director of the
Correctional Managed Health Care system, Dr. Robert L. Trestman, said
he could "substantially reduce" overtime even more if he could use per-
diem nurses "more flexibly without the current limits." But he has
been rebuffed by the health center's human resources administrators.
Why aren't the powers that be listening to Dr. Trestman?
The union's interest is obvious: Help members build as fat a pension
as they can get under rules that will lead taxpayers to the poorhouse
unless they are changed.
Full-time prison nurses can retire after only 20 years on the job and
at any age — at 40, for example — and immediately start drawing a
lifetime pension because they are classified as "hazardous duty"
employees, like police and correction officers. They can use overtime
pay to double their earnings in their three highest-paid years — upon
which their lifetime pensions are based. The more overtime, the bigger
the pension.
The health center's managers are too helpful in giving full-timers
lucrative overtime work when they could be giving the taxpayers a
break.
And how about the patients? How good can their care with overworked
nurses? Aren't nurses working double shifts prone to medical mistakes?
House Must Pass This Bill
The expensive overtime problem won't be solved, however, until
overtime is no longer used to calculate pensions. That day can't come
soon enough.
The governor has no direct budget authority over the health center and
can't change the overtime policy regarding the prison nurses. But he
has authored legislation to take overtime out of pension calculations
in the future (as well as eliminate the twice-a-year longevity
payments for veteran state employees).
The Senate has passed the legislation. It sits on the House calendar
because House leaders don't want to push the issue.
But it's time to bring the much-needed measure to a vote.
abuse-20110816,0,1932870.story
Courant.com
Overtime Abuse Needlessly Burdens Taxpayers
Prison Nurses: State should use part-time employees at regular pay to
save money
8:26 PM EDT, August 16, 2011
Advertisement
Here's yet another example of how some state employees take advantage
of the system to amass huge amounts of overtime pay — and expanded
pension benefits — all at overburdened taxpayers' expense.
The Courant's Jon Lender reported Sunday that managers at the
University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington — which operates
state prison medical units under a formal agreement with the
Department of Correction — choose well-paid full-time nurses to work
pension-fattening overtime hours, sometimes at a double-time rate,
when there are so-called per-diem nurses available to work the same
hours for substantially less pay.
As one part-time nurse complained in a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy
in March: "There are nurses being paid up to $100 an hour while I sit
home ready, willing and able to do the job for much less — $35 an
hour, no pension, no benefits."
Shame on the UConn Health Center administration for letting the full-
time nurses run up the overtime tab. That's the kind of policy that's
put the cost of state government on an unsustainable course, and it
must be changed.
One nurse, for example, made $106,000 in regular wages in fiscal
2009-10, and $94,000 in overtime.
Bowing To The Union
There is no contract provision or state law that says the meaty
overtime assignments must go to full-time nurses. The per-diem and
full-time nurses are, by and large, equally experienced and qualified.
The truth is that prison nurse overtime is more expensive than it has
to be because the health center administrators have been kowtowing to
the union — New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199/SEIU
— that represents prison nurses.
Last year, managers and the union reached an informal, expensive
accommodation — expensive for taxpayers — in which per-diem nurses'
hours were limited to two weekly shifts totaling 16 hours, giving far-
more-expensive full-time nurses more overtime work.
Managers didn't have to cave in to the union. They just did.
The Overtime Scam
Total overtime at the prison medical units apparently has dropped
since 2007 — a commendable development. The executive director of the
Correctional Managed Health Care system, Dr. Robert L. Trestman, said
he could "substantially reduce" overtime even more if he could use per-
diem nurses "more flexibly without the current limits." But he has
been rebuffed by the health center's human resources administrators.
Why aren't the powers that be listening to Dr. Trestman?
The union's interest is obvious: Help members build as fat a pension
as they can get under rules that will lead taxpayers to the poorhouse
unless they are changed.
Full-time prison nurses can retire after only 20 years on the job and
at any age — at 40, for example — and immediately start drawing a
lifetime pension because they are classified as "hazardous duty"
employees, like police and correction officers. They can use overtime
pay to double their earnings in their three highest-paid years — upon
which their lifetime pensions are based. The more overtime, the bigger
the pension.
The health center's managers are too helpful in giving full-timers
lucrative overtime work when they could be giving the taxpayers a
break.
And how about the patients? How good can their care with overworked
nurses? Aren't nurses working double shifts prone to medical mistakes?
House Must Pass This Bill
The expensive overtime problem won't be solved, however, until
overtime is no longer used to calculate pensions. That day can't come
soon enough.
The governor has no direct budget authority over the health center and
can't change the overtime policy regarding the prison nurses. But he
has authored legislation to take overtime out of pension calculations
in the future (as well as eliminate the twice-a-year longevity
payments for veteran state employees).
The Senate has passed the legislation. It sits on the House calendar
because House leaders don't want to push the issue.
But it's time to bring the much-needed measure to a vote.
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