Bill Text: HI SCR122 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Audit of Potential Absenteeism Abuse by State Correctional Officers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-04-01 - Report adopted, referred to WAM. [SCR122 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2015-SCR122-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	122
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO CONDUCT AN AUDIT TO DETERMINE THE EXISTENCE OF POTENTIAL PATTERNS OF ABUSE IN THE USE OF STATE AND FEDERAL LEAVE BENEFITS BY ADULT CORRECTIONS OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

 

 

     WHEREAS, similar to all state employees, corrections officers accrue twenty-one sick leave days and twenty-one vacation days each year; and

 

     WHEREAS, when using sick leave, corrections officers are not required to provide a doctor's note to verify their illness unless they have been absent from work for five consecutive working days; and

 

     WHEREAS, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave; and

 

     WHEREAS, more than half of the one thousand three hundred corrections officers in the State qualify for coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act; and

 

WHEREAS, during the first six months of 2013, the day with the highest absentee rate among adult corrections officers at the Oahu Community Correctional Center was New Year's Day, when eighty-seven corrections officers called in sick, equal to forty-six percent of those scheduled; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the Department of Public Safety, about twenty-three percent of the scheduled guards at the Oahu Community Correctional Center called in sick on June 15, 2013, the day a staffing shortage left a sixty-one year old guard to work alone, suffer a heart attack, and later die that night at a hospital; and

 

     WHEREAS, nearly half of the corrections officers at four correctional facilities across the State called in sick on Super Bowl Sunday in 2015, resulting in sixty corrections officers having to be held over or brought in on overtime to fill these vacant positions; and

 

WHEREAS, high absenteeism at the Oahu Community Correctional Center is one reason why the facility spends $2,500,000 a year on overtime; and

 

     WHEREAS, however, some Oahu Community Correctional Center managers run shifts with dangerously low staffing levels, leaving inmates, staff, and the public at risk; and

    

     WHEREAS, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii receives frequent complaints from family members of prisoners regarding the persistent and ongoing cancellation of scheduled visitation times at Hawaii's prisons due to staffing shortages;

now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct an audit to determine whether potential patterns of abuse exist in the use of state and federal leave benefits by adult corrections officers of the Department of Public Safety; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is further requested to submit findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2016; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor and the Director of Public Safety.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Audit of Potential Absenteeism Abuse by State Correctional Officers.