Relating to employees of the department of corrections and including applicability provisions

This bill relates to employees of the department of corrections. The bill designates nonsupervisory employees of the department 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. relating to city civil service employment. This provision applies to collective bargaining procedures pursuant to Code chapter initiated on or after the effective date of the bill. The bill provides that the state shall be required to pay the full cost of continuation of health insurance coverage for a surviving spouse and children of certain department employees. Current law provides that the state shall not be required to pay for the cost of the health insurance. The bill requires the director of the department 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 and days of paid leave depending upon the severity of the trauma event and to allow an employee who has been held hostage up to days of paid leave, and to establish protocols for allowing employees of the department with contact with inmates access to certain information specified as confidential under current law. The bill also prohibits the department 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.