March 10, 2025
Tom Eschen
March 10, 2025
NYS Inspector General Lucy Lang issued a 2023 report regarding DOCCS' workers "Lost Wage Benefit", and in light of recent events, is bringing it up again, saying more action is needed.
In that 2023 report, the IG office stated: "Since the enactment of DOCCS’ collectively bargained labor contract in 2015, the Offices of the New York State Inspector General has received hundreds of complaints alleging that DOCCS correction officers are abusing the lost wage benefits afforded to them under that agreement. These complaints have been echoed by staff at many of the 44 DOCCS correctional facilities visited by the Inspector General over the past year and have resulted in a daily struggle to simultaneously ensure safety while maintaining the delivery of critical services in the face of significant workers’ compensation-driven staffing shortages."
Lang serves as the Workers Compensation Inspector General, and says she's visited all of New York's 42 prison in recent years, which also led to her 2024 report on the implementation of the HALT Act.
Lang recently wrote an op-ed in the Albany Times Union, called "Commentary: Prison reforms must include measures to prevent workers' comp abuse".
In that article, she pushed for the State to include more emphasis on this issue in the State's upcoming budget and during the legislative session.
Here's what she told CBS6 regarding the issue:
"I heard over and over again that both incarcerated people and corrections staff were upset by the volume of corrections officers who were out on workers compensation leave. What we learned when we dug into it is that although corrections staff only comprised 15% of the state workforce, they comprise upwards of 44% of the state insurance on workers compensation claims. And contrary to what one might think, the vast majority of these workers compensation claims are unrelated to any contact with an incarcerated person. They're related to your standard kind of workplace injuries. What happens when a corrections officer is out on workers' compensation leave is that their colleagues end up having to work overtime to work double or even triple shifts. And unfortunately, due to a provision in the contract, there's a real incentive for DOCCS' officers to go out on workers compensation. And there aren't the same limitations that there are in other comparable industries, like, for example, the police, who have to stay at home when they're home on a worker's compensation lead, and so it can be easily monitored. It was very difficult for us to even pursue fraud cases against DOCCS officers who may be abusing that very generous provision because of the fact that it does not have those limitations on it," Lang says. "So, as a result, we see huge numbers of facilities that have very large numbers of officers who are out on workers compensation leave, resulting in under staffing. And the first thing to go when staffing numbers are down are the kind of programs that folks rely on to help facilitate their success when they come home, and that includes the truly mission-critical vocational and educational programs that we know are the core of enabling people to successfully rehabilitate and reintegrate."
The report concluded: "This abuse is statewide, does not appear correlated to any increase in violence or uses of force within prisons, and is ongoing."
In 2023, the report recommended the Office of Employee Regulations to review the "Lost Wage Benefit" in the next collective bargaining agreement. This week, the IG is doubling down on that request.
"We have recommended that there be a real assessment of the provision as it exists, and that there be continued vigilance to those claims," she said on Monday.
One of the requests for the prison workers illegally striking in New York over the past few weeks involved 24-hour shifts and changes to overtime pay. As a part of the agreement between DOCCS and striking workers, a partial suspension of the HALT Act for 90 days was included, along with the establishment of a committee to evaluate facility operations and safety.
Lang says New Yorkers who suspect fraud or corruption in any State Executive agency to report it at 1-800-DO RIGHT (1-800-367-4448) and can also submit complaints through the Inspector General's social media platforms.