CA: 'Fitness' pay adds to prison expense - Guards' former bonus is now an expensive perk

Mercury News ^ | 8/19/04 | Mark Gladstone

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO - Last year, prison guards received ``fitness pay'' worth $33.2 million -- nearly a sevenfold increase from 1999 -- even though they're no longer required to even take a physical fitness test, much less pass one.

The guards' union proclaims its members walk the toughest beat in the state, but the cost of their contract has been under mounting scrutiny because the state is relying on borrowing billions to balance the books.

Legislative critics complain about what they call overly generous salary provisions, and say that point is brought home by a close look at the fitness pay given to officers. What used to be a bonus paid to some guards who proved their fitness on a physical test has morphed into a perk that the overwhelming majority now receive.

In fact, managers, wardens and deputy directors are now among the roughly 25,000 employees eligible for this extra pay, according to Corrections Department officials.

Starting in 2002, most of them began to collect fitness pay -- averaging about $1,550 per year for a veteran guard -- based on a doctor's note, not an actual physical test.

[headsonpikes]

Public sector unions are a conspiracy against the public interest. Period.