New Year’s Day. Superbowl Sunday. Manti Te’o day.
Those were the three days from January to June when the largest number of guards at Oahu Community Correctional Center called in sick.
When a corrections officer takes sick leave, either a replacement must be called in or someone has to work a double shift — 16 hours straight — and that results in overtime.
The cost of overtime runs into the millions, and the consequences of apparent sick leave abuse can be dire, even deadly, officials say.
Guards, like all state employees, can use up to 21 days sick leave per year.
"We can’t just fire people because they’re taking sick time," Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said Wednesday. "If there’s abuse happening, we would have to prove it, and we just don’t have the resources and manpower to do investigations like that."
For fiscal year 2013 the cost of overtime at OCCC was $2.6 million, considerably less than in fiscal year 2012, when the tally was $3.2 million, Schwartz said in response to a request for information.
On Jan. 1, 87 of the 252 corrections officers scheduled to work called in sick or took leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which amounts to 34 percent calling in sick. Also, 64 had to work overtime.
On Feb. 3, Super Bowl Sunday, 82 of 212 guards, or 38.7 percent, were no-shows, and 62 had to work overtime.
On April 27, when Manti Te’o was being honored with a parade, 64 of 212 guards, or 30.2 percent, called in sick; 53 worked overtime.
Calling in sick can cost in other ways.
On June 16, corrections officer Michael Makiya, who should have had a second person working with him, was alone in a locked control room when he had a heart attack and later died.
"They had a lot of people out sick that day," 66 to be exact, Schwartz said. "They had to move the person in the control room" to another post to cover for someone who called in sick. "He was left on his own."
Makiya had fallen unconscious on the floor. While doing checks, as is done every half-hour, a guard spotted him on the floor.
Guards tried to get the key kept in a lock box, but the person temporarily assigned as captain either forgot the code or didn’t have it, so the door had to be broken down to get to Makiya, Schwartz said.
He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Prison policy requires staffing for all essential positions. However, that’s not the case for nonessential jobs, like the second person to work in the control room.
The Public Safety Department runs an attendance program that basically monitors employees who use all their sick time.
Schwartz said the program is about accountability.
However, time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act doesn’t count against the employee under the attendance program.
Also, an employee can be out for five days without a doctor’s note.
Schwartz said creative ways to cut overtime have resulted in the drop in the cost. For one thing, a worker must havepreapproved vacation to take time off.
If there is a staff shortage, prison officials also cancel certain programs for inmates for a day, or cancel or shortened recreation time.
But last August, inmate visits were suspended for about a month due to a shortage of guards.
That caused problems with inmates and that practice has stopped, Schwartz said.
Working overtime does take a physical toll on the guards who have to cover for others, Schwartz said.
"The majority of our ACOs do a really good job," Schwartz said, referring to adult corrections officers. "They come in when they’re supposed to. They stay extra when they’re asked to fill those empty shifts. But a lot of sick time is taken by others, which causes these people to have to work a lot of overtime."
