The Cuyahoga County Jail has always been a gender specific facility. Meaning a male officer would supervise male inmates and a female officer would supervise female inmates. On February 4th 2018, those practices came to an end and in doing so workplace discrimination has been ushered in. Male correction officers are now being forced to carry overtime loads whereas their female counterparts will not even be considered.
This past Sunday when the facility changed to non gender specific direct supervision (in certain areas of the jail) they also implemented rules that violate a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that has been in effect since January 1, 2017 and doesn’t expire until December 31, 2019.
C.C.J. Corrections Officer: “They informed us (Corrections Officers) at roll call of this new change. My sergeant came up and said ‘we are not going to be enforcing any overtime on females’. The roster sergeants, like they always do each shift, told us how they were going to be distributing time for the roster over the next 6 months and they said they will not be hitting female officers over male officers. They did not tell us if they were ever going to change it either.”
Discrimination At C.C.J.
‘we are not going to be enforcing any Overtime on female officers.’ – C.C.J. Sergeant
Read the entire CBA here: CBA Sheriff Dept. Full
The discriminatory violation takes place in Article 24 of the CBA and can be found specifically in Sections 5 & 6. These sections specifically outline overtime and how it is divvied up amongst CCJ officers.
This isn’t the first time issues have arose surrounding overtime at the Cuyahoga County Jail. Over the past 2 years alone, more than 186 individual complaints from various corrections officers were submitted regarding excessive & repeated forced overtime. The issue of excessive overtime has been at a direct result of shortened staff. In 2017 this only worsened as the jail saw one of it’s highest turnover rates in history with more than 90 employees leaving the department.
Interesting Fact: C.C.J. has been hiring females at an unprecedented rate as the new hires have predominantly been female.
As a result of the new jail policy to introduce a co-corrections supervised atmosphere, hundreds of officers were initially optimistic and had high hopes of being able to work less hours, while some women were hopeful to be able to work much needed overtime. That, however, was not the case when they were informed that females wouldn’t only not be required to work overtime but that they wouldn’t be offered any overtime whatsoever (in a male pod). Thereby placing the overtime duties solely on the already overworked male corrections officers.
This leaves a number of issues open as both the county and bargaining unit try to find middle ground. A middle ground on the violations of pre-existing agreements and contracts that are already in place. As hundreds have been forced to work excessive overtime due to shortness of staff. As a result male Officers are now filing grievances on the department for gender discrimination. The Officers are citing that the county is violating their contractual rights under their current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
HAWK SAYS: How hard is it to comply with guidelines, contracts, regulations or agreements? Isn’t that what these kinda things are drafted for? For some reason, Cuyahoga County Jail, some of the superiors, some of those in charge, just don’t have a clue how to enforce policy… This is beyond mere violations or workplace discrimination, this is point blank incompetency. Incompetency that has resonated full blown and specifically demonstrates those who wish to wield powers of their position as how THEY see fit instead of simply doing their jobs and enforcing what has been decried via agreements, guidelines, policies or even, in some cases, THE LAW! Some of these individuals will be exposed in our upcoming articles as they continuously adhere to an ever growing code of conduct known as scumbag-ism.
What Is Equal Rights?
Related Article: The Third World Country – Cuyahoga County Jail
Is this an example of equal work, equal rights and equal pay? Or is this an example of a discriminatory act against a specific gender within one of the nations largest county jails?
What They Want: Correction Officers want the entire staff, whether it be male or female, to be treated equally in every aspect of the CBA.
What They Say: Female Officers are unsure of the new position they find themselves in as it relates to training or lack thereof. Female correction officers underwent extensive special self-defense training to prepare for their new roles, however, unlike their male counterparts they will not be forced to do overtime.
C.C.J. Corrections Officer: “They should have came to the union first and said they were going to be doing this, nobody did that. Instead they are clearly discriminating against the male employees.”
The Bottom Line: When an official agreement is drafted, signed and enforced it should be strictly adhered to. Otherwise, the purpose of forming such agreements becomes entirely mute. When officers show dismay at the way their facility is being operated, that generally means that there are guidelines that aren’t being followed and agreements that aren’t being met. In situations such as this, it should be a simple fix, all that’s needed is for individuals whom are in positions of power to enforce what they are bound to. If the agreement doesn’t get enforced, then someone simply isn’t doing their job.
SCUMBAGGED TIP: As of this submission there are more than 10 pending submissions related to Cuyahoga County Jail. Those submissions range from spoiled food being served to inmates, excessive suicides as a lack of security and staff, failures of management on all levels, derelict of duty, violation of codes and a plethora of evidence to back up each and every single one of these claims. As a result, each Tuesday for what seems to be the unforeseeable future, Scumbagged.com will be running a new article exposing each individual issue at hand. Some might even start to call it “Terrible Tuesday”… 😛
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