A Times Editorial

Equal compensation

Blue-collar workers shouldn't be left out of additional benefits offered to workers in special-risk jobs, and Gov. Jeb Bush should do something about it.

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 11, 2000

Few Florida workplaces could be more dangerous than the four forensics units that house the criminally insane. At the two in Chattahoochee last year, 31 employees suffered reportable injuries at the hands of patients. One survived a strangulation attempt not long ago.

One was strangled in 1981. Ever since, the caregivers have sought the same special-risk status that allows police, correctional officers, firefighters and certain others to retire earlier and at higher pay than workers with equivalent tenure in safer jobs. Without question, they deserve it. But when the Legislature finally acted this year, only half the workers were recognized. Special-risk pension eligibility was awarded to some 900 white-collar health professionals, primarily nurses, dietitians, psychologists and pharmacists.

Left out were the blue-collar workers, mostly nurses' aides and orderlies, who have even more direct and constant contact with patients. As they explain it, they're the ones who, armed only with their hands and wits, unshackle the new patients deputies have delivered. They're the ones who restrain violent patients so that the nurses can medicate them.

There is another distinction between the two groups. Whites account for 77 percent of those newly eligible for special-risk status. Minorities constitute 77 percent of those who were left out. There are explanations, but no good excuses, for how this happened. Whether intended or not, the result is disgracefully biased. It offends common decency and common sense.

Motives aside, this much appears clear: Through their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the blue-collar workers have persistently sought the benefit. This year, however, it was a late addition to their collective bargaining agenda with the Department of Management Services and was still on the table when Gov. Jeb Bush concluded his proposed budget. Meanwhile, the Florida Nurses Association, which represents the better-paid professionals, insisted on special-risk from the start and saw the funds included in the governor's budget. AFSCME was relying on legislation sponsored by Rep. Beverly Kilmer, R-Quincy, but at the session's end her bill died in the House Appropriations Committee, which approved a broader measure by its chairman, Kenneth Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie. That bill was amended on the floor to benefit the Nurses Association membership but not AFSCME's.

The blue-collar workers infer political malice because their union is overwhelmingly pro-Democratic, helped to defeat the Bush administration's proposed sexual predators unit at Chattahoochee and opposed the governor's One Florida plan. The Nurses Association, on the other hand, has been contributing mainly to Republicans since Bush's election two years ago. Another political subplot concerns Kilmer's rerun with Democrat Jamie Westbrook, whom she defeated two years ago. AFSCME has turned bitterly against Kilmer, accusing her of having falsely reassured them that her bill was in no trouble. That may be a bad rap. Kilmer wouldn't be the first freshman to have naively misapprehended leadership intentions.

Whatever was promised or not, Pruitt should not have allowed an outcome that is so obviously illogical and unfair. Special-risk retirement should have been extended to both groups or neither.

AFSCME is preparing to file a federal job discrimination complaint, but it should not have to come to that. With a word from Bush, the state could and should pledge itself to equal treatment for all of the forensic employees at the Legislature's first opportunity.

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