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September 26, 2003
Cops in Nassau Get 21% Raise In 6-Year Deal
Arbitrators require Givebacks But Not Health Payments
By Richard Steier
Police Officers in Nassau County will receive pay raises of just over 21 percent
under a six-year contract award issued by an arbitration panel Sept. 14, bringing
maximum salary to $92,400 as of July 1, 2006.
The cash-strapped county, which has its spending monitored by the Nassau Interim
Finance Authority because of a massive deficit that is partly the result of its
generous police compensation, won a number of cost-saving contract changes from
the arbitrators, including a retroactive one-year wage freeze and an additional
freeze of six months that takes effect in 2005. But Nassau officials’ bid
to have cops pay 50 percent of their health costs was flatly rejected.
Some Key Savings
County police officials did. However, gain greater flexibility both in scheduling
officers and civilianizing positions. The county will achieve substantial savings
by not having much of the pay raise apply to the early steps on the salary scale,
and through changes in when night pay takes effect and the number of annual work
hours used to calculate benefits ranging from overtime to holiday pay.
But Nassau Police Benevolent Association members in addition to their wage
gains will receive a boost in longevity differentials and a new education incentive
bonus that starts at $600.
While the county will save significantly due to the panel’s elimination
of generous provisions under which night differential pay took effect beginning
at 11 a.m. and officers were paid for any travel time to and from their homes
that was connected to some overtime work, those changes were not a total loss
for Nassau PBA members. The arbitrators eliminated a 10-percent night differential
that was paid between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., but the differential between 3:30
p.m. and 7 p.m. has been boosted to 12 percent, same as for hours worked later
at night. For the first time, cops will be paid the night differential for the
hour between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., also at 12 percent.
Tough for PBA to Top
Nassau wage settlements have always held wide interest among officers in the
NYPD, many of whom live on Long Island, even as they have been a source of discomfort
for presidents of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. The last Nassau
PBA arbitration award, in 1997, granted 24-percent wage increases over five years
along with a variety of fringe-benefit gains during the same week that a city
PBA arbitration panel issued a five-year award that provided just 13 percent in
raises and began with a two-year pay freeze. The disparity produced such a strong
outcry among the PBA’s rank and file that then-President Lou Matarazzo retired
rather than seek another term.
City Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley last week reacted with what
has been his standard presentation in a series of arbitrations with the PBA where
comparability to Nassau has been raised. Unlike the city, he said, Nassau does
not have a Fire Department or bargain with other employee groups that because
of longstanding salary relationships with cops could be expected to receive similar
wage hikes if they took their cases to arbitration, and it doesn’t have
to fund a school system.
PBA Not Talking
PBA officials did not return calls seeking comment on the Nassau PBA deal.
Among the key provisions of the deal, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001
and expires Dec. 31, 2006 are:
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A wage freeze for all of 2001;
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Pay hikes of 3.9-pecent retroactive to Jan. 1, 2002 and Jan. 1, 2003, with
another 3.9-percent raise payable next Jan.1;
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A six-month freeze beginning Jan. 1, 2005;
- Raises of 3.9-percent effective July 1, 2005 and July 1, 2006;
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An improved longevity pay scale beginning next January worth anywhere from
$400 to $1,700 a year more depending on years of service;
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A change in the number of hours used to calculate holiday pay, overtime and
shift differentials from the old standard of 1,856 to 1,985 effective Jan. 1,
2004, reducing Nassau County’s costs by roughly 7 percent in those areas;
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An education incentive retroactive to Jan. 1, 2003 of $600 for any officer
who competes 124 college credits, rising to $695 by Jan. 1, 2006, with the incentive
money given to incumbent officers based on their on-the-job experience even if
they lack those credits;
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Four additional 12-hour tours worked annually by each officer at regular pay,
one in each quarter of the year;
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The loss of one paid holiday – Flag Day – for incumbent officers,
and of two additional holidays for officers hired after Sept. 15, 2003 during
their first two years on the job;
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A change in termination pay calculations based on the new standard of 1,985
hours, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2005;
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The county won the power to civilianize up to 50 jobs per year in each of the
next two years that are currently being performed by uniformed officers;
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The Nassau P.D. can reduce minimum staffing beginning Jan. 1 by up to 417 sector
car assignments per year in each of its eight precincts and its highway unit;
- Starting pay for rookie cops during their first six months in the Police Academy
will be upgraded from $21,000 to $23,000, but the raises under the contract will
not be applied to that salary, and the rates for cops hired after Sept. 15, 2003
will remain frozen at $30,000 during their second six months out of the academy,
and $43,244 for the succeeding six months on the job;
New Starting Rate
- Effective Dec. 31, 2006, the last day of the contract, the new starting rate
for those entering the Police Academy will be $34,000, and a new step progression
will be implemented under which upon marking a year’s service, those new
hires would jump to $65,643.
Changing the hourly benchmark to holiday pay, overtime and shift differentials,
as well as for calculating termination pay, provides sizable savings in those
areas by effectively reducing the hourly wage of Nassau cops. For example, a cop
earning $60,000 in base pay would have his hourly wage for calculating those differentials
set at $32.33 if the old standard of 1,856 hours was in effect. Raising the standard
to 1,985 hours puts the hourly wage at $30.23 and reduces the differentials to
which that cop is entitled.
The basic pay hikes plus compensation to officers for the additional 48 hours
they will work as part of their regular schedules will bring maximum from $73,859
up to $92,499 by the end of the contract. (The additional tours cannot be scheduled
on holidays or officers’ vacation days, and they must receive at least 14
days’ notice.)
Gap Likely to Widen
Despite Nassau County’s troubled finances, the deal will almost certainly
widen the major pay gap between cops there and their New York City counterparts.
The city PBA’s last contract – also awarded via arbitration –
expired last July 31, with a maximum salary of $54,048. Under the Nassau award,
as of Jan. 1, 2003, officers at maximum are making $79,733. Nassau County cops
reach maximum salary after seven years on the job, compared to five years for
those in the NYPD.
After years in which Republican control of the County Executive’s seat
and the Nassau Legislature had created a cozy bargaining climate for the Nassau
PBA, the county’s financial problems produced a Democratic takeover and
a bid by County Executive Thomas Suossi to put an end to the days of largesse.
Nassau officials took a tougher line – implicitly and explicitly –
in the arbitration process this time around. Nonetheless, the three neutral members
of the arbitration panel – chairman John M. Donoghue, veteran Long Island
police arbitrator Martin F. Scheinmen, and Howard C. Edelman – crafted a
deal that, while it offered something to both sides, came closer to the Nassau
PBA’s aspirations than the county’s
Where the Nassau PBA argued for 4.5-percent raises in all six years of the
contract Nassau County sought a three-year wage freeze at this outset. While it
acknowledged the validity of the union’s contention that this would place
Nassau cops behind their counterparts in Suffolk when it came to salary, it noted
that its bonds were rated lower than the neighboring county’s as well, and
insisted that better standards for comparison were the pay levels for NYPD cops
and State Troopers.
Citing the escalating cost of health benefits, Nassau asked that cops pay 50
percent of those costs in the future.
Nassau County also sought to limit night shift differential pay to the hours
between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and reduce it to 10 percent for that span, recalculate
differentials based on the standard prior to the last arbitration award in 1997
of 2,088 hours worked, and eliminate three paid holidays.
Well Not Totally Dry
In rendering its decision, the arbitration panel – which also included
the county’s chief negotiator, Anthony Cancellieri, and Nassau PBA President
Gary DelaRaba – noted the fact that Nassau’s financial difficulties
had forced a property tax increase of nearly 20 percent last year and that its
bond rating was the lowest in the state.
While those realities argued against meeting the union’s demands, it
said, a three-year wage freeze “is unwarranted, as well.” The panel
noted that historically compensation in Nassau had been linked to that in Suffolk,
rather than using New York City, and that private-sector wage increases in both
suburban counties had averaged 4.5 percent in 2001 and 2002 before falling somewhat
so far this year. Freezing wages for 18 months of the six-year deal while granting
five 3-percent increases over its course, the arbitrators said, met the county’s
need for savings while also giving cops sufficient protection against inflation.
Because the raises are compounded, their value swells from the basic 19.5 percent
to about 21.1 percent.
The panel granted an increase in longevity payments on the basis that whatever
ground Nassau cops lost to those in Suffolk on wages should not be compounded
by slippage in other areas. Under the old contract, officers with six to nine
years on the job got an annual $1,400 longevity payment, those with 10 to 14 years
got $2,500, 15-year veterans got $3,700, and more senior officers got an additional
$350 for each extra year of service. The new contract sets longevity at $300 per
year for each year of service starting with the sixth, effective next Jan. 1.
An officer with eight years on the job would thus be $1,000 better off next
year, but by the final year of the contract, when he would be receiving $3,000
rather than the old standard of $2,500, would be gaining just $500 for that year.
In reining in the night differential standard, the panel implicitly criticized
past county officials and the arbitrators who provided political cover for their
generosity. Alluding to the peculiarity of having something called “night
differential” take effect at 11 a.m., the panel stated, “This time
period does not comport with the generally accepted belief that employees who
work late hours which disrupt their family lives should be compensated for this
inconvenience.”
Waiving Flag Day
The arbitrators also eliminated Flag Day as one of the Nassau cops’ 13
paid holidays, noting, “Generally neither private-sector nor public-sector
employees receive Flag Day off.”
As to the past practice of granting cops compensation for time traveling to
and from work whenever they were called in on an overtime shift that didn’t
immediately follow or precede their regular tour, the arbitrators stated that
paying time-and-a-half for the overtime tour was sufficient recognition of the
inconvenience involved and eliminated the travel time pay beginning next January.
While the change in hours to be used in calculating differentials will take
effect Jan. 1, the arbitrators delayed imposing that switch for termination pay
until Jan. 1, 2005. They explained that leaving the force usually involved long-range
planning, and so it was unfair to have the benefit negatively adjusted in a way
that would hurt cops who had previously begun planning their departures for sometime
next year.
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