City suit: Jail union encourages AWOLs

The city has filed suit against the correction-officers union for allegedly allowing or encouraging guards at Rikers Island and other municipal jails not to show up for work.

In the Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed Monday, the city asks a judge to force the Correction Officers Benevolent Association to help stop guards from skipping out on shifts, whether by taking sick days or going AWOL.

COBA and its leaders are “clearly aware of this campaign of mass absenteeism, and are either unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations under the law and contract to mitigate it, putting the population of Rikers Island — employees and detainees alike — in greater danger,” the suit charges.

More than 20 percent of Rikers COs took a sick day Sept. 14. The city claims that the officers are “engaged in a campaign of mass absenteeism that constitutes an illegal strike and/ or work slowdown.”

COBA has tended “to justify” the officers by shifting blame to the working conditions at the DOC, despite the fact that AWOLs go against collective-bargaining principles, the city claims.

“At this critical juncture, the unlawful campaign of mass absenteeism by correction officers is one of the primary contributors to an emergency circumstance in which the health and well being of plaintiffs employees, as well as the detainees in DOC facilities, are at risk,” the suit claims.

Conditions are worsening at Rikers because officers aren’t doing their jobs, the suit claims. For instance, inmates aren’t receiving their meds, meals are getting “significantly delayed or not provided altogether,” and emergencies at the jail are being ignored, the court documents allege.

The city is seeking $1 million per day for any DOC slowdowns, strikes or mass absenteeism that COBA “causes, instigates, encourages or condones.”

COBA President Benny Boscio Jr. blasted Mayor de Blasio over the suit, calling it “factless.”

“This meritless suit falsely accuses COBA of encouraging our members to commit a job action and to not come to work,” Boscio said. “We call on all labor unions in New York and anyone who supports essential workers, to tell Mayor de Blasio to stop union busting and to start making our jails safer today for everyone.”

COBA is suing the DOC for an alleged hostile and unsafe work environment for officers.

City Hall did not return a request for comment.