Half-staffed: More money for Philly guards as city prisons at 55% staffing level

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A new arbitration ruling should help Philadelphia hire more guards in a prison system where nearly half of all positions are empty.

One hundred corrections officers and others covered by District Council Local 159(b) will receive a 4.5% raise, along with a $1,600 retention bonus for those employed as of May 1.

Corrections Commissioner Michael Resnick said in order to recruit more officers, the city is temporarily waiving its residency requirement to widen the pool of potential applicants.

“You can come to work in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons and you don’t have to change your residency. Come to Philadelphia, work in our prison system, earn the salary, earn the bonus and go home to your current residence.”

Those bonuses amount to $10,000 after working for the city for a year.

Allowing workers from outside the city limits is a change from the previously negotiated contract. Until now, corrections employees have only been able to move out of the city after five years on the job.

Mayor Cherelle Parker is able to make the change under regulations that give her flexibility with the residency restriction, but she still wants workers to live in the city.

“The mayor has the ability to have his or her administration offer a waiver, and what you just heard is that until our correctional officers, our prisons department reached the 80% complement, we will continue to have that waiver in existence,” she said.

Parker said the waiver along with the pay increase will hopefully make it easier to fill the open jobs.

The city’s blue and white collar unions still remain without a contract extension after the majority of the other city unions agreed to give the city a year of breathing room during the waning days of the Kenney administration.

“We have to keep the city on sound fiscal ground so that we can negotiate the multi-year contract with all of our municipal unions in the very near future,” Parker said. “We’re going to be working extremely hard. That’s the hard work and that’s what we’re going to be working on to get accomplished.”