By Chris Ingalls
King 5
KING COUNTY, Wash. — Some King County government employees are able to boost their incomes by taking advantage of vacation and overtime policies — at the expense of taxpayers and at a time of tight budgets at all levels of government.
A KING 5 Investigators review of timesheet information for workers at the county’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention found 2,153 instances since Jan. 1, 2012, in which jail employees received overtime pay on a day they were also using vacation or comp time. A total of 378 employees did it at least once during the time period.
One example of how a jail employee can take advantage of current rules: A nightshift corrections officer can take a vacation day for his regularly scheduled shift. He can then work vacation relief on a dayshift schedule and earn overtime salary -- time and a half. The officer loses 8 hours of vacation time, but earns 1.5 times his regular pay.
Full story: King Co. Jail payroll policy good for workers, bad for taxpayers