Assigned to JUD & APPROP                                                                                                                FOR COMMITTEE

 

 

 

ARIZONA STATE SENATE

Phoenix, Arizona

 

FACT SHEET FOR H.B. 2639

 

critical incident stress management; confidentiality

(NOW: law enforcement employees; paid leave)

 

Purpose

 

Establishes that paid leave may be considered hours worked for the purpose of calculating overtime compensation for certain law enforcement activities.        

 

Background

 

Law requires that any person engaged in law enforcement activities be compensated for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours each week.  Employees who work overtime are recompensed either monetarily or with compensatory leave.  Statute defines a “person engaged in law enforcement activities” as a law enforcement officer, a peace officer or any security personnel responsible for maintaining custody of inmates in state, county or city correctional institutions.  This term does not apply to persons employed in an executive or administrative capacity.     

 

The Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) policy for calculating overtime has been to consider vacation and compensatory time as hours worked in certain circumstances.  Currently, DPS policy does not include paid sick leave as overtime.  Legal advisors to DPS from the Attorney General’s Office state that without statutory authority, DPS cannot continue to consider paid leave as hours worked for purposes of calculating overtime pay.  H.B. 2639 provides DPS with the legal authority to continue this practice while leaving the option open to other law enforcement agencies, such as the Department of Corrections (ADC), which has not currently adopted this practice.

 

Any potential impact to the state general fund relates to the possibility of overtime pay for some agency employees, including employees of DPS and ADC.  However, because this legislation permits and does not require overtime pay to be calculated in a specific manner, the fiscal impact of this legislation is undeterminable.

           

Provisions

 

1.      Allows paid leave to be considered hours worked for the purpose of calculating overtime for certain persons engaged in law enforcement activities.

 

2.      Makes conforming changes.

 

3.      Provides for a general effective date.

 

House Action

 

MVAA            3/21/02            DPA/SE           8-0-0-2-0

3rd Read           4/08/02                                    49-0-11-0

 

 

Prepared by Senate Staff

April 19, 2002