$2 million Muster Pay Settlement

As the team and I depart from Miami, following the FOP National Conference, I have some good news to share with you all. This week I was able to negotiate a settlement agreement on the Muster Pay Grievances, for all NDOC Custody employees. (Lt, Sgt, SCO, CO, and COT) This grievance has been ongoing and actually developed into 2 separate issues that will now be resolved.

The first issue was the incorrect or non payment of muster pay from 12/02/2022 through 04/30/2023. The second issue is the incorrect or non payment of Shift differential on Muster pay from 07/01/2023 through 11/30/2024. Due to the time frames, there will be 2 separate payment classes.

The first group will be those still working for the NDOC who were hired prior to 04/30/2023. This group, with a few exceptions who were already paid, will receive $1800 on a separate check. To receive your check, you will be required to sign a waiver releasing all claims to muster pay from both issues. This includes custody staff on all shifts even though a portion of this settlement was for shift differential for muster pay. The other portion which increased the amount of the settlement was for non payment/partial payment of muster pay during the time period following the finalization of the muster payment lawsuit settlement agreement, until the NDOC was properly paying all facilities equally.

The second group will be those still working for the NDOC who were hired from 05/01/2023 through 11/30/2024. This group, with a few exceptions who were already paid, will receive $500 on a separate check. To receive a check you will be required to sign a waiver releasing all claims to ouster pay from both issues. This group, even though it was related to shift differential on muster pay, will include custody staff from all shifts. This was the only way to account for all staff who could have moved between qualifying and non qualifying shifts for shift differential.

You have to sign within 60 days and checks will be delivered by October 31st.

I have been working on this matter for 2 years and I spent all week in zoom meetings, back and forth negotiations, and phone calls. Just so everyone is clear, the state wanted to pay $500 to everyone to resolve both issues. This was not fair to the over 1,000 employees, including supervisors, who are included in the first group. This will apply to members and non members alike. The reason it was not fair is the missing and partial muster payment is for a greater amount than the shift differential pay portion. We brought the state to what we felt was a favorable final amount, when considering costs associated with potential litigation and attorney fees. I also did attempt to increase the $500 for the newer group of staff, but due to the fact that everyone from all shifts are included in this group, the average amount works out to be a reasonable number. This also was done with the consideration of how horribly long you would have waited to receive payment. Quite frankly, you all have waited long enough. The decision to accept this offer from the state was done with every executive board member, supervisor committee member, almost all trustees, and almost all stewards voting yes to accept the states offer. I hope you all are happy with our efforts to finally resolve this matter on your behalf.