Judge: Corrections Department workers' pay arbitrarily cut

LANSING (AP) — A judge says thousands of specialized Michigan Department of Corrections employees saw their pay cut while their responsibilities stayed the same because of an arbitrary reclassification of their positions.

The Lansing State Journal reported the ruling by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette in favor of the employees came this month. Collette overturned earlier decisions by the state Civil Service Commission.

In 2012, the department downgraded about 2,400 resident unit officers to normal corrections officers and nearly 60 corrections medical unit officers to corrections medical officers.

Andy Potter, chief of staff for the Michigan Corrections Organization union, says the hope is that employees “get what they’ve worked for and have continued to work for.”