TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Nine minutes of unpaid work a day for four years equals a proposed $7.2 million settlement for prison guards and other state workers who were required to do such tasks as checking equipment before their shifts began.
Those are the terms of an agreement by the state Corrections Department, attorney general's office and Teamsters Local 117 to settle a class-action lawsuit. "It worked out pretty well when all three parties got together," said Lewis Ellsworth, a lawyer for the 1,900 affected workers.
The lawsuit concerns "pass-downs" - periods before and after each shift when guards are required to check equipment, do inventories or give instructions to guards on other shifts. The pass-downs, usually six to 12 minutes a day, were outside the workers' paid shifts.
Based on payments of $2.88 a day for each shift worked from March 30, 2000, to April 1, 2004, a typical guard who worked 224 shifts a year for four years stands to receive $2,580 under the agreement, which also includes funds for court costs and lawyers' fees.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/05/28/477247-ap.html
Those are the terms of an agreement by the state Corrections Department, attorney general's office and Teamsters Local 117 to settle a class-action lawsuit. "It worked out pretty well when all three parties got together," said Lewis Ellsworth, a lawyer for the 1,900 affected workers.
The lawsuit concerns "pass-downs" - periods before and after each shift when guards are required to check equipment, do inventories or give instructions to guards on other shifts. The pass-downs, usually six to 12 minutes a day, were outside the workers' paid shifts.
Based on payments of $2.88 a day for each shift worked from March 30, 2000, to April 1, 2004, a typical guard who worked 224 shifts a year for four years stands to receive $2,580 under the agreement, which also includes funds for court costs and lawyers' fees.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/05/28/477247-ap.html