Iowa Appeal Board approves back pay for prison staff who got COVID-19 tests before work

The State Appeal Board has approved paying Newton Correctional Facility employees back pay for the time it took for them to take COVID-19 tests during the height of the pandemic.

The three-person board voted unanimously Tuesday to give the Iowa Department of Corrections $112,563 for the back pay owed to 235 current and former Newton prison employees. The money covers the approximately six minutes each time it took for prison employees to get tested for COVID-19 before starting their shifts from July 2020 through May 2021, according to the board’s meeting packet.

“Iowans expect to pay a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work,” Auditor Rob Sand said in a statement. “Plus, correctional officers’ jobs are already dangerous enough.”

Iowa’s prisons faced several COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020, with at least 19 incarcerated people and two staff dying from the disease. In June 2021, the Corrections Department reported more than 4,800 offenders and more than 700 staff contracted the virus.

The system halted in-person visits for more than a year to try to slow the spread of the virus.

It’s not clear from the Appeal Board packet why the Newton employees weren’t initially paid for the time it took to get tested. The claim included $85,748 for current employees and $26,815 for terminated staff.

The State Appeal Board is a three-member board consisting of the auditor of state, treasurer of state and director of the Department of Management. The board pays or rejects claims against the state or a state employee, and resolves local budget protests.

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