Pocono News Section

Luzerne County Sick Time Controversy

Luzerne County Sick Time Controversy - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 6:28PM EST

Reported by: Mike Trim
Thursday, Feb 18, 2010 @ 06:28pm EST

WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- Luzerne County Controller Walter Griffith says his office has no intentions of paying unused sick time to nine county prison employees. "If the people on this sheet need to cash in today, the county would be obligated to cut a check for 48 thousand dollars today," said Griffith .
Griffith says the workers union contract says they can accumulate up to125 sick days in their careers. Any unused sick days past that point should be cashed out annually. Griffith says these nine workers stockpiled unused sick days past those requirements and are now asking for a payout.

Some, like Robert Butler of Wilkes-Barre said, "If you work and don't take no days off then you've earned that. If you're faithful to your employer i think you really, really should be paid for your sick days." But through all those numbers, Griffith says a problem stands out, county accountability.

"The problem that I have is documentation. There's not a lot of documentation. We don't have time clocks in the county, we don't have ways that people are supposed to report their time to the county efficiently and effectively, so there's no checks and balances." The County union representative couldn't be reached Thursday.