Sheriff’s Sergeants Win Labor Dispute With Boss

Nine Spokane County sheriff’s sergeants will return to a four-day work week and get more than $4,000 each after winning a dispute with Sheriff John Goldman.

An examiner with the state Public Employment Relations Commission ruled this week that Goldman violated state law last September when he changed the patrol sergeants’ schedule.

The new shift required the sergeants to work five, eight-hour days per week instead of their previous shift of four, 10-hour days.

Goldman said the change would better serve county residents because there would be more patrol sergeants on duty at any given time.

Shortly after the switch, the deputies’ union filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the commission.

The union claimed Goldman made the change over its protests. That breached the collective bargaining agreement between deputies and the county, union officials said.

They also accused Sheriff’s Department administrators of trying to intimidate deputies by saying the sergeants’ attempts to overturn the new schedule could have a “chilling effect” on future contract negotiations.

Commission examiner Rex Lacy sided with the union Tuesday, calling Goldman’s actions “unilateral” and his defense “frivolous.” Lacy ordered the sheriff to return the sergeants to their previous four-day schedule.

He also required the county to give them four hours’ pay for each five-day shift they worked. The extra pay will “make employees affected by the unlawful changes of work schedule whole,” Lacy said.

Undersheriff Mike Aubrey said Thursday that could cost the department as much as $40,000.

Efforts to reach Goldman for comment were unsuccessful. Sheriff’s officials will meet with county attorneys today to decide whether to appeal Lacy’s decision, Aubrey said.

, DataTimes