Traffic-detail savings flagging
Report: Civilians not widely used because wages tied to cops’ rates
A government watchdog group said the state’s flagger reform effort is coming up short on savings because of rules that keep wages for non-police traffic direction tied to the rates earned by cops.
The Pioneer Institute released a report today saying the Department of Transportation’s savings have “not been significant” — $23 million over three years — after the law passed allowing for non-cops to wave cars by at construction sites.
“Rates for civilian flaggers are effectively set by the rate paid to police performing flagger duties,” said Pioneer research director Greg Sullivan, a former state inspector general, who wrote the report with research assistant Michael Chieppo.
Massachusetts was the last state in the country to allow for civilians to work as flaggers on construction sites. The law, passed under former Gov. Deval Patrick over the protests of police unions, has not led to widespread use of civilian flaggers.
That’s at least in part because, the study’s authors claim, the state prevailingwage law ties civilian-flagger wages to what cops would be getting for the same job — an average of $43.44 an hour for the civilian flaggers, well over the $28.99 nationwide average.
“Gov. Patrick’s reforms were effectively negated in practical application,” the report states.
Flagging work less commonly falls to cops in other states, where civilian flaggers are the norm for many projects. The report says only four other states have prevailing-wage laws in this regard as strong as Massachusetts, mandating that the state has to pay at least the going rate negotiated by organized labor for the same job.
The savings the state has seen come from the fact civilian flaggers are only paid for hours worked, whereas police flaggers are paid in four-hour blocks, so they are on the clock often for more hours than they actually work, says Pioneer, a small-government research organization.
The report calls on the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to determine a prevailing wage for flaggers — one that’s not directly tied to the one negotiated by the cops.
“The state and municipalities would have a far greater incentive to use civilian flaggers,” the report states.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s office left the possibility of proposing a rule change up to the Legislature.
“The administration supports the use of a combination of police details and civilian flaggers on projects as directed by law, and would carefully review any legislative proposals that reach the governor’s desk,” Baker spokeswoman Sarah Finlaw told the Herald.
Neither the State Police Association nor the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association could be reached for comment.
Previous to 2008, all roadwork in Massachusetts had to have police officers on scene for traffic control. After the law change, projects on many less-traveled roads could use the civilians instead.
About 4.4 percent of MassDOT’s roads budget went to flaggers in the five years before the law. That portion dropped to about 3.4 percent after the change.