Eliminating the insult to injury
State Corrections and State Law Enforcement Officers on the verge of getting supplemental injury compensation after SLI Bill unanimously passes NJ State Senate and Assembly
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Brian Renshaw feels the saving grace of the SLI Bill when telling the story of his State Corrections Local 105 brother recovering from a brutal beating that caused hearing and memory loss. Inmates dragged the corrections officer into a cell, and nobody knew for about two minutes that they were wailing on him. Rehab from the injuries he suffered has been massive. His wife still has to spoon-feed him meals.
A ray of hope, a guiding light for this and other injured officers with state agencies has come in the form of the Sick Leave Injury( SLI) Bill that passed the NJ State Senate by a 34-0 vote and the Assembly by a 77-0 vote. It is on the governor’ s desk awaiting signature into law.
In short, the SLI Bill provides State Corrections Officers and members of the State Law Enforcement Unit( SLEU) who are injured as the direct result of an assault with a prisoner or taking custody to regular supplemental payments from their employers added to workers’ compensation payment to equal his or her net wages at the time of injury. To Renshaw, the SLI Bill gives state law enforcement officers a benefit he can’ t begin to put a price on.
“ This bill is so key because it allows our injured officers to concentrate on their rehabilitation and not worry about a lack of finances,” Renshaw reasoned.“ Without this compensation, we have injured officers who have faced losing their homes and not being able to put food on the table.”
“ I think it clearly shows how( legislators) support law enforcement officers injured in the line of duty.”
28 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MARCH 2017
- State Park Police Local 222 President Chris Smith
“ Without this compensation, we have injured officers who have faced losing their homes and not being able to put food on the table.”
- State Corrections Local 105 President Brian Renshaw
To help generate overwhelming legislative support for the SLI Bill, State Park Police Local 222 President Chris Smith, also the SLEU President, propagated amendments that enjoined his members, State Campus Police Local 278, Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Local 388, State Weights & Measures Local 269, New Jersey Weights & Measures Local 203, New Jersey State Conservation Officers Local 120, New Jersey State Human Services Police Local 113 and New Jersey State Parole Officers Local 326, among others, to be covered. The simple upshot of the SLI Bill is that it provides all these officers with supplementary injury compensation and gives them the same coverage as municipal officers throughout the state.
“ It’ s actually ridiculous that we did not have the coverage, and every legislator that we made aware of it understood why it’ s so important,” Smith explained.“ I think it clearly shows how senators and assembly representatives support law enforcement officers injured in the line of duty.”
Under the provisions of the bill, injured officers will be entitled to their salary from their employer until their workers’ compensation payments begin. Once their workers’ compensation payments begin, the injured officers and employees will be entitled to regular supplemental payments, the amount of which, when added to the injured officer’ s workers’ compensation payments, will equal net wages at the time of the injury.
These supplemental payments do not negate or impair any benefits afforded an injured officer under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, contract or statute and these benefits are to remain in full force and effect during the time that officer receives the supplemental payments.
Renshaw noted the value of the supplementary compensation increases when considering that, after payroll and other deductions from that 70 percent that workers’ comp covers, an officer can be left with 53 percent of net pay. Smith observed that even more value will come from sister and brother officers being able to save some of their sick leave they were donating to friends and colleagues in need.
These were among the points Renshaw and Smith made when meeting with, and educating, legislators the past 11 months. The work to close this gap has been transpiring at least the past seven years, when the state passed legislation to take these benefits away from officers in the state agencies.
“ When that riot bell goes off, and we are trying to save one of our own, we can’ t worry about how we are going to satisfy our financial obligations,” Renshaw added.“ With the emotional trauma that comes with an injury, officers getting the pay they are supposed to is huge mentally for them to recover and get back on the job.”
One of the other detriments officers in the state agencies, especially corrections, often feel is whether people know what happens on the other side of the wall. But both Smith and Renshaw submitted that the NJ State PBA certainly knows, and the support of President Pat Colligan, Executive Vice-President Marc Kovar and Director of Government Affairs Rob Nixon led to the landslide votes in the senate and assembly in favor of the SLI Bill.
“ They have given us unwavering support,” Smith said,“ and that helped lift like two years’ worth of burden off our shoulders.” d