Relating to certain employees of the department of corrections, including collective bargaining, health insurance for a surviving spouse and children of certain employees of the department, and certain operational and employment matters involving the department, and including applicability provisions

This bill relates to the department of corrections. The bill designates nonsupervisory employees of the Iowa department of corrections with ongoing direct contact with inmates as public safety employees for the purposes of collective bargaining pursuant to Code chapter 20, the public employment relations Act. Code chapters 20 and 400 include collective bargaining procedures specifically applicable to public safety employees that are not applicable to other public employees, including procedures relating to the scope of collective bargaining negotiations, arbitration procedures, and certain matters relating to city civil service employment. This provision applies to collective bargaining procedures pursuant to Code chapter 20 initiated on or after the effective date of the bill.13D, providing for continuation of health insurance coverage for a surviving spouse and children of certain department of corrections employees, is amended to provide that the state shall pay the full cost of the health insurance. Current law provides that the state shall not be required to pay for the cost of the health insurance. The bill establishes additional duties of the director of the department of corrections. The bill requires the director to establish a training program for employees of the department with ongoing direct contact with inmates in self-defense and other de-escalation techniques when confronted with potentially violent interactions involving inmates, establish uniform safety practices to be implemented at all correctional institutions, adopt rules to allow an employee of the department who has witnessed a trauma event to take between 5 and 30 days of paid leave depending upon the severity of the trauma event and to allow an employee who has been held hostage up to 90 days of paid leave, and to establish protocols for allowing employees of the department with contact with inmates access to certain specified confidential information. The bill also prohibits the department of corrections from entering into an employment contract with a person to perform a function of the department that provides the contract employee with pay or benefits in excess of pay and benefits provided an employee of the state performing similar work.