Request By:
Mr. William I. Markwell
Henderson County Attorney
Courthouse
Henderson, Kentucky 42420
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The jailer of Henderson County has asked you, as County Attorney, to raise the following question with this office:
Because of the recent changes by the General Assembly with regard to the operation of county jail, do the employees of the jail become "state employees" as of July 1, 1982 for the purpose of obtaining employee fringe benefits or is the county still responsible for paying Social Security payments, Workmen's Compensation premiums, Unemployment Insurance premiums and medical insurance coverage?
Under H.B. 440 (1982 regular session), the deputies, matrons and other supporting personnel are actually county employees. See KRS 441.006, new section, providing that the county must either provide a jail or contract with another county or a city for the incarceration and care of its prisoners. KRS 441.005, new section, (5) defines "jail personnel" as meaning deputy jailers, matrons, cooks and other food service personnel "and other jail employes involved in the supervision, custody, care or treatment of prisoners in jails but does not include maintenance or clerical personnel. " The above "jail personnel" are county employees, even though the state contributes financially to the operation under KRS 441.007, Section 3, H.B. 440.
For the purpose of obtaining employee fringe benefits, the county is still responsible for paying, on behalf of jail personnel "as county employees, Social Security payments (KRS Chapter 61), Workmen's Compensation premiums (KRS Ch. 342), Unemployment Insurance premiums (KRS Ch. 341) and medical insurance coverage (KRS Ch. 67). In other words, the "jail personnel" above defined are county employees, and applicable statutory law relating to the county as "employer" is involved. See KRS 79.080, KRS 67.083, § 3, Kentucky Constitution, and Talbott v. Thomas, 286 Ky. 786, 151 S.W.2d 1 (1941).