LOS ANGELES, CA – The L.A. County Sheriff just realized that the deputies he had to send home in March under quarantine won’t be getting paid for their required time off, and he’s not thrilled to say the least.
It’s obvious that first responders were, and currently are, at risk for exposure to COVID-19. When Sheriff Alex Villanueva made the hard choice to require certain deputies to quarantine during the month of March, it was in the interest of safety.
Now, Sheriff Villanueva has been notified by the county CEO that those deputies ordered to quarantine in March won’t be getting paid for the time off, unless they had sick leave that they could cash in.
NEW: LA County Sheriff tells me the county CEO has decided not to pay his deputies who were quarantined for potential #COVID19 exposure during the month of March. They will instead have to use their own sick leave, & it comes out of their paychecks if they don’t have any. @FOXLA
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) April 1, 2020
In his mind, no deputy should worry about whether they’re going to get paid if they’re ordered to stay home:
“Our public safety personnel, our first responders, the least of their worries should be that they’re not paid by their employer.”
Sachi Hamai, the CEO for L.A. County, informed the sheriff that any deputies that were ordered to quarantine prior to April 1st can only be compensated if they had available vacation or sick hours.
It’s times like these where all LA county sheriffs deputies need to walk off the job and refuse to return until this is corrected. The county CEO will change his tune within the hour. https://t.co/OIzXtuFGt5
— Rob O’Donnell (@odonnell_r) April 2, 2020
Sheriff Villanueva couldn’t believe what he was being told by the county CEO:
“Those who don’t have sick time or vacation time are just not going to be paid, it’s a big problem with me.”
The sheriff can’t seem to wrap his head around why the county would even posture this for those who were likely exposed to the virus while working:
“We have an obligation, we’re putting them in jeopardy by putting them into situations the average citizen is not going to do, and why on earth would we jeopardize their pay because of a quarantine issue.”
Current quarantine orders mandate that any deputy asked to quarantine after April 1st will automatically get 80 hours of paid sick time deposited to be used during the required quarantine.
Even that doesn’t fully compensate for the suggested 14 days of quarantine, but it’s better than nothing. Plus it’s enough time to get an officer tested and determine whether the officer needs to continue in isolation.
Wait!! And @LACountyCEO won’t pay our deputies that were told to quarantine after COVID19 exposure on duty. Crazy sad!!
LA County spending $400,000 to hire 2 PR firms to guide coronavirus messaginghttps://t.co/W9VcfNPQVK
— Detective Moses Castillo (@DetectiveMoses) April 3, 2020
The county CEO is blaming Sheriff Villanueva for those not getting paid from March quarantine. CEO Hamai said:
“[Sheriff Villanueva] should be well aware that employees he orders to stay at home should be placed on paid administrative leave. If the Sheriff has any other concerns, he should be working with the County’s Department of Human Resources.”
NEW: L.A. County CEO responds to Sheriff Villanueva’s comments to me about deputies not being paid while under quarantine in the month of March. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/LYroqYQ5ka
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) April 1, 2020
According to the sheriff, since many of those ordered under quarantine won’t likely test positive for COVID-19, that administrative pay isn’t exactly easy to make happen:
“90 percent of them won’t’ be sick, they’re not gonna test positive, which means they’re on quarantine only, and you can’t build a workman’s comp claim for not being sick, the quarantine issue is not there as part of workman’s comp.”
So far, the department has been forced to send over 200 deputies into quarantine. By the enactment of not retroactively paying those sent in March, that will leave 50 of those deputies unpaid. Sheriff Villanueva isn’t giving up on making sure his deputies are compensated.
He reached out to County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on April 1st to ask the county Board to formally commit to making sure all quarantined deputies get payed, whether sent home in March or not.
Sheriff says the county will follow federal guidelines and begin giving first responders 80 hours of sick leave beginning TODAY, but he sent this letter to Supervisor Barger asking to also cover his deputies during the month of March. Says 209 deputies are quarantined. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/D3UUUN9mCA
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) April 1, 2020
Not only is this a current injustice in the eyes of the sheriff, he thinks this is going to scare off new recruits:
“This is going to impact recruiting. People are not going to go out and volunteer when they know that when they walk into the job they’re not going to be paid, that’s a big problem.”
The county needs to figure this out. Deputies shouldn’t be at a financial loss because of administrative nonsense and county officials playing “hot potato” with ownership of the circumstances.
These deputies faced potential exposure to COVID-19 and were ordered to quarantine, paying them for forced time-off is simply the right thing to do.
And, hopefully, the unions will step in and make sure it happens. Clearly the city has a vendetta against the Sheriff, which, to be honest, is understandable. But they don’t get to use his officers’ livelihoods to stick it to him. That’s not ok, and Law Enforcement Today will help spread the word as much as we can to get those officers and their families taken care of.
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