Corrections workers will be getting raises before Christmas.Ìý
The state employees union has accepted a proposed 4.4 percent average increase in salaries for eight job classifications in the Department of Correctional Services, Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Thursday.Ìý
The salary increases would modify the workers' contracts as requested by Ricketts' administration in August to help increase staff retention in the state prisons. Â
Hiring rate increases, which are the same percentage increases for current workers, would be as follows: corrections unit caseworkers, 5 percent; corrections officers, 4.5 percent; corporals, 5.4 percent; sergeants, 6 percent; mental health practitioners I, 2.4 percent; mental health practitioners II, 4 percent; registered nurses, 3.7 percent; food service specialists, 4.2 percent.Ìý
Corrections officers will have a new minimum hourly rate of $16.58 and a maximum rate of $22.34. Unit caseworkers will get between $18.76 and $25.68.
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Pay has been an ongoing complaint by Corrections workers as the state has battled to retain employees.ÌýThe department has been “treading water†on staffing, in the words of Director Scott Frakes. At any given time it has up to 200 vacancies in positions. Keeping workers has been more of a problem than hiring.
The increases are significant and a positive step forward, said Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, who chairs the Department of Correctional Services Special Investigative Committee. They are outside of normal negotiations and so don't preclude the state from discussing step-up salary increases in the future, she said.
"We have to be competitive and we have to contemplate the step-up pattern that the county has because we want to keep up in the future," she said.Ìý
The agreement reflects the state's ongoing commitment to improve the working conditions and performance of the Department of Corrections, Ricketts said.
“Attracting and retaining talented officers has been identified as a key priority and this agreement will allow us to address those challenges head on immediately rather than waiting until the spring,†he said.
The seven-month cost of the increases for the remainder of the state's two-year budget, including benefits, is $1.86 million. The annual cost for 2017 is $3.2 million. Workers will get their raises beginning Nov. 28.
The money would come from the current budget.