Iowa has revoked overtime eligibility for about 2,800 state workers, a move critics say could cripple government services if employees leave for the private sector and better jobs.

In all,167 job classifications, including nurses, public defenders and social workers, can now be required to work more than 40 hours a week without additional pay or comp time.

And for 12,800 state workers who remain eligible for overtime, the state has altered how it calculates overtime in ways that reduce their pay and the circumstances when employees qualify for it. For example, the hours that count toward overtime must be those actually worked in a week. Before, sick or vacation days counted toward the calculation.

The state estimates the changes will save $5 million a year.

But critics say the moves unfairly change the rules for state workers and threaten the state's ability to recruit and retain employees. Some state workers say some of their peers have already decided they have had enough.

"We see people leaving or quitting, which causes more workload and overtime for us," said Courtney Supino, a registered nurse at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville who sometimes works 50 to 64 hours a week.

Before the new rules began in July, Supino was paid 1½ times her hourly salary for overtime. Now, many other workers in state government receive no additional pay past 40 hours, no matter how long they work.

However, Supino is paid her regular hourly wage when she clocks more than 40, an exception made for some nurses.

The changes were made possible through a controversial and wide-ranging collective bargaining bill that lawmakers approved in February,House File 291. The bill was introduced, approved by lawmakers in the House and Senate (all Republicans) and signed by then-Gov. Terry Branstad within eight days, despite fierce union protests.

Among a host of other changes, the law allows the state to roll back overtime eligibility that historically had been granted to thousands of union employees under the Federal Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.

Most of the changes in the law have been implemented by Branstad and current Gov. Kim Reynolds, even as an ongoing lawsuit asserts the changes are unconstitutional.

​​​​​​Iowa Department of Administrative Services spokeswoman Tami Wiencek, a former Republican state representative from Waterloo, defended the overtime changes as a matter of fairness.

The positions have always been exempt from overtime under federal standards, but had been granted overtime in previous union agreements, she said.

“The consistent application of the FLSA to all state employees, contract and non-contract alike, provides for equal treatment of employees,” Wiencek said.

What's at risk

States can calculate overtime in ways that allow a wider range of positions to qualify for extra pay for extra work, said Judy Conti, the federal advocacy coordinator for the National Employment Law Project, a New York-based group that advocates for worker rights.

Iowa’s decision to widely reduce overtime benefits is uncommon and could result in workforce problems for state government, Conti said.

“This is a short-sighted way for the state to do business,” Conti said. “If they have any intention of attracting and retaining the best talent to serve the citizens of Iowa, reducing compensation and worsening working conditions for state employees isn’t the way to do it."

At least three departments — Human Services, Corrections and the Iowa Veterans Home — already have appealed to state regulators and been granted at least a partial waiver to the overtime changes.

Each department said a severe shortage of nurses already is causing difficulties that would be exacerbated by the new overtime rules.

The Iowa Department of Corrections’ prison in Oakdale, for example, has around 30 registered nurses at a site that in 2008 had 60.

While the department’s exception was granted, it allows Corrections to pay only straight time — not time and a half — to nurses who work more than 40 hours.

“We don’t know what the impact is yet,” said Daniel Craig, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Corrections. “We haven’t had anybody leave directly as a result of not getting everything we wanted in the waiver, but we don’t know."

In Mitchellville, where Supino works, prison officials have struggled for years to retain nurses who are lured by hospitals or the private sector with higher pay, sign-on bonuses and promises of better hours.

Five of Mitchellville's 15 registered nurse positions are unfilled. The prison has seen the turnover of 30 registered nurses since it expanded in 2013, including six in the last nine months.

"It's been difficult" to fill nurse positions, said Kerri Freidhof, the prison's nursing director. "This (overtime change) didn't help."

Iowa Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy McCoy declined to answer questions about the consequences of the overtime changes to her department.

Human Services provides help to more than 1 million Iowans a year and has an annual budget of around $6 billion for services such as foster care, child support, food assistance, Medicaid and programs for severely disabled Iowans.

McCoy referenced her department’s one-page waiver request to exempt nurses from the new overtime restrictions. That form notes nursing shortages and Human Services’ difficulties competing with the private sector. Human Services employs about 200 nurses.

“We don't have comment beyond the information provided in the waiver, but thanks for checking,” said McCoy in response to questions about overtime.

The waiver form does not mention the effect that overtime changes have on the department’s 4,500 other employees, a roster that has shrunk by more than 635 employees since 2010.

The overtime issue comes as Human Services faces ongoing questions about its worker caseloads and its handling of emergency situations following the recent starvation deaths of two 16-year-old girls who had been adopted from foster care.

Those cases, both within the last year, involved Natalie Finn of West Des Moines and Sabrina Ray of Perry. Human Services previously had investigated both their adoptive parents for allegations of abuse.

As for the Iowa Veterans Home, Commandant Timon Oujiri declined to be interviewed but answered questions via email.

His staff has 55 registered nurses but is short 15.

Oujiri said the overtime changes have had minimal effect on other areas of his agency. He acknowledged when "a change of this nature is first implemented in any institution, employee morale can temporarily be affected."

‘Stealing money out of workers’ pockets'

Overtime historically has been paid in areas where staffing is required 24/7 to maintain public safety.

Examples include prison guards or residential treatment workers at the state’s two facilities that care for people with severe intellectual disabilities.

A Des Moines Register review of the state government’s top 10 overtime earners in the 2017 fiscal year shows most of those workers will remain eligible for overtime because of waivers.

Database:State employee overtime and comp time

Each made $39,000 or more in overtime during the fiscal year that ended July 1. The employees included prison officers, residential treatment facility employees and nurses.

Under the new collective bargaining law, state union employees may no longer negotiate over issues such as health insurance, evaluation procedures, staff reductions and leaves of absences for political purposes.

Police officers and firefighters are exempted from many of the law’s provisions. AFSCME Iowa Council 61, which represents more than 40,000 public employees in Iowa, argues in a lawsuit that the new law violates the Iowa Constitution by creating "favored" and "disfavored" groups of government workers.

A hearing in the case is set for Sept. 15.

“This is the state of Iowa stealing money out of workers’ pockets," said Danny Homan, the union's president. “I don’t know how taking overtime away from someone is providing equal treatment. They are not paying employees for the extra hours they work. That’s the bottom line.”

The new rules

Here are some of the key ways a new law changes benefits for thousands of Iowa government workers: