Schedule changes pitched to cut Westmoreland jail overtime

Supervisors at the Westmoreland County Prison could be required to work longer shifts under a plan adopted Monday by members of the board that oversees the county lockup.

Prison board members unanimously recommended extended workdays for five sergeants who oversee the jail’s staff of guards as part of an effort to reduce overtime costs that have skyrocketed in recent years.

Warden Bryan Kline said the limited pool of sergeants, who serve as second-in-command among on-duty corrections officers, could see their schedules reconfigured to include three 12-hour days and one additional six-hour shift each week under the revised system.

The change would require each sergeant to work two hours of overtime per week.

Sergeants are now scheduled to work five eight-hour shifts each week plus additional overtime shifts to cover staff shortfalls, officials said.

“We are short-staffed, and this will reduce overtime shifts each week,” Kline said of the proposed scheduling changes.

Sergeants, like all guards at the jail, are on duty around the clock, and, because so few are on staff, overtime shifts have become the norm as the prison’s administration struggles to ensure the Hempfield facility has a full personnel complement at all times, Kline said.

The prison houses about 500 inmates.

“With this change, we will only have 10 overtime hours to pay each week (for sergeants). That’s less than we are paying now,” Kline said.

Overtime has become a growing issue for the jail. A Tribune-Review analysis this month found that more than $1.38 million in overtime was paid to guards and other staffers last year at the prison, an amount that was about 27% of the more than $5 million in overtime paid to all county employees in 2022.

Through the first three months of 2023, the county paid more than $374,000 in overtime to jail guards.

When fully staffed, the county has 159 guards on the payroll. Officials said there are 31 vacant guard positions. Meanwhile, guards have been working without a contract since January, when the previous four-year labor deal with the United Mine Workers of America Local 522, the union that represents guards, expired. Negotiations on a new deal are ongoing.

Sergeants are not members of the union.

The county’s salary board, which is made up of the three county commissioners and Controller Jeffrey Balzer, will have final say on implementation of the revised shift plan. The commissioners and Balzer also serve on the prison board and gave preliminary approval to the plan Monday.

“This will save us money, but I’m not sure how much. I’ll have to look at the numbers,” Balzer said. “We don’t have enough employees down there, and, ultimately, we may have to pay the positions higher salaries to draw people in.”

For now, the reconfigured shifts will be limited to sergeants. Kline said the plan could be extended to include six lieutenants, a move that also would not require union approval.