COBA has filed a lawsuit to protect the rights and dignity of RNDC Officers who DOC is trying to use as pawns in yet another misguided managerial experiment.
NYC Administrative Code 9-116 enshrines Correction Officers’ right to work one of three tours in a day. DOC’s current managerial preference, the RNDC pilot program, is to run only two 12 hour tours in violation of the Administrative Code.
In order to get around the law, DOC is claiming that a four year old emergency order entitles them to violate the law. The Emergency Order was originally implemented under mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021 to alleviate staffing burdens expected due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate commencing. DOC has taken no action under this old emergency order since a previous 12 hour tour program was abandoned thanks to COBA’s advocacy back on January 31, 2022 – which was the first month of Mayor Adams’ elected term. Even the original justification for the emergency order – the public sector vaccine mandate – was rescinded long ago in February 2023. Now, in December 2025,DOC is hiding behind the veil of a phony emergency order that they have taken no action under for the past four years.
Commissioner Maginley-Liddie, who claims to care about Correction Officers’ well-being, is prioritizing a whim of managerial preference, violating the law, and disrupting the lives of countless Correction Officers. DOC’s plan requires Correction Officers to come in at either 5 AM and work until 5 PM or come in at 5 PM and work until 5 AM. All commencing over the holidays with – for some Correction Officers – as little as four days’ notice of which tour they are required to work. What quality of life is there for a Correction Officer when the Department uproots your life with mere days of notice to sort out important quality of life issues, like childcare, on the fly and in the middle of a school year?
We hope the court will understand the unfairness in DOC’s treatment of Correction Officers and order the Department to immediately cease and desist from running tours that violate the law.
