A $6.8 million deal that involves higher pay and bonuses has been reached between the Vermont Department of Corrections and the union representing frontline staff over longer shifts and 60-hour workweeks.
According to the corrections department, the estimated $6.8 million financial impact of the agreement covers through the end of fiscal year 2023.
“This level of investment is important: staff need to be appropriately compensated for the extra work while we stabilize the system,” Rachel Feldman, a corrections department spokesperson, wrote in an email Tuesday in response to questions about the financial impact of the agreement.
“Ultimately,” Feldman added, “stabilizing is just the first step; making this system sustainable and creating a healthy work environment for our staff are the key objectives of this effort.”
Nicholas Deml, the corrections commissioner, had said earlier this month that he planned to move corrections officers from the current five eight-hour shifts a week to five 12-hour shifts, to help address safety and staffing shortages.
Both sides have said that many corrections officers have been forced to work long overtime hours for some time due to the lack of staff. As of the start of this month, according to the corrections department, 165 of 553 security staff positions were unfilled, a 29% vacancy rate.
To make the shift changes, the department had to negotiate with the union before implementation. However, under certain conditions, such as emergency circumstances due to low staffing levels, the department could have enacted the schedule change without an agreement between the parties.
The deal forestalls any dispute over the new schedule.
“In the end, this agreement was reached with one goal in mind: to provide the best possible situation for our staff as we stabilize our facilities and make our system sustainable for the long term,” Deml said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The agreement calls for a market study on the pay of corrections officers. The starting pay for an entry-level corrections officer is $20.96 an hour.
The deal also includes a $3-per-hour pay increase for staff who work within a prison’s secure perimeter, as well as bonuses for new hires, including a $1,000 lump sum upon completion of one year of work with the department.
The schedule changes already went into effect earlier this year at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury and the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield on an “emergency” basis due to staffing shortages at the time at those facilities.
The schedule change is expected to take effect at the remaining four prisons in Vermont by the end of August.
Feldman said Tuesday that when staffing levels at a facility improve and reach a set threshold, the goal is to change to a schedule in which staff members work seven 12-hour days over a 14-day period, with the goal of providing better work/life balance. That schedule would include one three-day weekend during each 14-day stretch, she said.
Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees’ Association, the union representing corrections workers, had previously blasted the corrections department over the move to 12-hour shifts.
Howard struck a slightly different tone Tuesday.
“I think there was a feeling that something had to be done to try to stabilize the completely out-of-control crisis,” he said.
“The intent was really to take a first step — and this really just a first step — to get the department out of the tailspin that it is in,” Howard added. “What was important for our members was that this be temporary, not a permanent fix.”
