H-1403.1
SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1345
State of Washington | 66th Legislature | 2019 Regular Session |
ByHouse Labor & Workplace Standards (originally sponsored by Representatives Frame, Irwin, Sells, and Goodman)
READ FIRST TIME 02/22/19.
AN ACT Relating to limiting overtime for correctional officers; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that correctional officers in the county jails are often required to work significant overtime hours. These long and unpredictable hours impact the officers' health and cause strain on families. The legislature also recognizes that counties face budgetary and other challenges in operating jails. Further, the legislature finds that the problem appears to result from a combination of many factors and that there are a range of possible solutions. Therefore, the legislature intends to gather data to better understand the scope of and reasons for the problem.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The department shall collect data from each of the counties in the state regarding use of mandatory overtime in jails in the most recent five years for which data is available. The department shall collect at least the following data:
(a) The number of correctional officers employed by the county;
(b) The number of hours of mandatory overtime;
(c) The shift on which the mandatory overtime was worked; and
(d) Whether an unforeseeable emergent circumstance was the reason for the overtime.
(2) A county shall cooperate with and provide the data requested by the department.
(3) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(a) "Correctional officer" means a person employed by an employer who is responsible for the custody, safety, security, and supervision of inmates in a jail or juvenile offenders in a detention facility.
(b) "Department" means the employment security department.
(c) "Detention facility" means a county facility, paid for by the county, for the physical confinement of a juvenile alleged to have committed an offense or an adjudicated offender subject to a disposition or modification order. "Detention facility" includes electronic monitoring.
(d) "Jail" means a facility operated by a county and primarily designed, staffed, and used for the housing of adult persons charged with a criminal offense either prior to trial or sentencing or following conviction, or both.
(e) "Overtime" means hours in excess of the agreed upon, predetermined, regularly scheduled shift within a twenty-four hour period.
(f) "Unforeseeable emergent circumstance" means:
(i) A riot or other organized body acting together by force or similar emergency in which a need arises to detain a significant number of persons;
(ii) An unforeseen emergency requiring additional staffing occurs in the jail; or
(iii) Any other unforeseen disaster or other catastrophic event that affects staffing in the jail.
(4) The department shall provide the data collected under this section to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 2020.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act expires January 1, 2021.
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