Corrections officers at the Coleman Federal Correctional Institution in Sumter County have won the appeal of what will likely be a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
The guards at Coleman sued for thousands of hours' worth of overtime dating back to 2007. The Federal Labor Relations Authority agreed with their claims that they should be paid from the time they walk in and out of the prison, because even if they aren’t on duty yet, they are required to respond to emergencies.
"Staff come in perform work and they need to be compensated for that, and they haven't been doing that," said Joe Rojas, President of American Federation of Government Employees Local 506. "It's been an ongoing issue for some time within the agency, not just with Coleman, but throughout, and they don't fix it."
Rojas said the authority doled out double damages, because the prison lost a similar lawsuit in 2010 at another penitentiary on campus but continued to skirt the law. That time they paid out nearly $4 million.
A prison spokesperson said she couldn’t comment on pending litigation.