Union head says report is 'inaccurate and misleading'
State comptroller Matthew Boxer, pictured in a file photo, found the state spends millions of dollars every year to cover the cost of uniforms for state employees who don't actually wear uniforms.TRENTON — The state last year paid out $2.3 million for clothing allowances to "white collar" workers who do not wear special clothes or uniforms to work, a report released Wednesday by the state comptroller concludes.
"The state spends millions of dollars every year to cover the cost of uniforms for state employees who don’t actually wear uniforms," Comptroller Matthew Boxer said in a statement. "It’s absurd."
The report found the state paid $22 million for clothing stipends to 27,000 employees in the fiscal year that ended last June 30, and $4.8 million of that went to those with office or desk jobs. Of those employees, who each received $700 a year, a survey determined 48 percent do not wear special clothes to work. Only 18 percent of white collar workers are required to wear special clothes to work, the report concludes.
The payments are to employees identified by title in union contracts that have been in place for more than a decade, the report found. Gov. Chris Christie is now negotiating new contracts with state workers unions.
Boxer recommends reviewing the stipends and only providing them to those employees who need special uniforms for work.
"Figuring out who exactly is entitled to these payments should not be so complicated," he said.
Christie on Wednesday blasted the payments, calling them part of the "crap" hidden in union contracts to hamstring future governors from making reductions.
"I wonder if the CWA is willing to negotiate that," Christie said, referring to the Communications Workers of America, the largest state workers union.
Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey director for the CWA, dismissed the report as "inaccurate and misleading." She said Boxer surveyed human resource employees to determine who needed clothing stipends but didn’t talk to any of the employees receiving them.
"Public workers who have received a modest clothing stipend have been carefully negotiated on a job-by-job basis through the collective bargaining process between the state and its workers," said Rosenstein. "Many wear uniforms. Many others need the right clothing to do what are often dangerous and dirty jobs."
Comptroller spokesman Peter McAleer said in the survey to determine which employees needed uniforms, each human resources representative was asked to consider each job title and determine whether that title needed a uniform or special clothes.
In addition to the "white collar" payouts detailed in the report, the comptroller found $8 million went to corrections officers, $6 million to employees in health fields and $2.6 million to security, maintenance and similar job holders. The report did not provide specifics for these workers.
A Star-Ledger analysis of state payroll records shows corrections officers and other law enforcement personnel receive larger stipends than other state workers, with most rank-and-file members receiving $1,733 during 2010.
Last year, 476 captains and lieutenants working in the adult and juvenile corrections systems each received a clothing stipend of $6,222.50, according to payroll records.
In the health field, about 9,000 employees identified in payroll records as health care and rehabilitation services workers received an average of $700 in clothing stipends last year.