ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland board approved a settlement of more than $13 million on Wednesday to resolve claims of unpaid wages due to the changing of timecards at the state’s corrections department, after an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department.
The settlement, approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works, comes after the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland Council 3 — the union representing the workers — filed multiple complaints alleging that the state was illegally changing the time records for employees without their knowledge or permission.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who chairs the board, said the Maryland Department of Corrections and Public Safety violated federal wage laws by failing to pay overtime to 3,874 current and former correctional officers. He also said it covers a three-year period from 2018 to 2021.
“While the Department of Labor’s investigation is still ongoing, the one thing that we know is for certain: the federal government found that thousands of dedicated and hardworking employees were underpaid for hours of work they performed at the department,” Moore, a Democrat, said.
The governor said the state will work with AFSCME to make sure that the employees are made whole, “as well as any others that we uncover in other departments as well.”
Patrick Moran, the president of AFSCME Maryland Council 3, thanked the governor for working to address the matter, and he criticized the previous administration for allowing it to happen. He described the settlement as “the second largest wage-theft settlement for correctional officers in United States history.”
Moran said it was not a computer glitch that caused the problem, adding “they had to authorize and execute this plan.”
“People need to be held accountable because they stole employees’ money,” Moran said. “They thought that people working for free was acceptable. It is not acceptable ever in any situation.”
Comptroller Brooke Lierman, who is one of three board members that includes Moore and Treasurer Dereck Davis, said it was shocking to see a state agency engaged in such a practice.
“It was a blatant violation of the long established Fair Labor Standards Act, and trained professionals should have and did know better,” Lierman, a Democrat, said.
Settlements will vary for each individual employee depending on how their hours were rounded up or down by the department and when they punched in and out on their timecards.
All state-run correctional facilities are covered under the settlement.
“This news is a big step for us to be able to move forward with the pay that we know we are entitled to after constantly being told we weren’t. We’ve faced understaffing, constant changes in policies, and mental and physical stress in this job. This money is long overdue,” said Dorian Johnson, a correctional officer sergeant at the Chesapeake Detention Facility.
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