Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is appealing decisions ordering state corrections officials to drop efforts to switch from 12-hour to eight-hour work shifts without negotiating the changes with a union representing prison employees.

Siding with the Florida Police Benevolent Association in the contract dispute, Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson last month upheld an "opinion and award" issued in April by arbitrator Marc A. Winters.

"Arbitration awards are afforded a high degree of conclusiveness and courts do not attempt to substitute their judgment for that of the arbitrator," Dodson wrote in the Oct. 16 order.