|
Friday, November 11, 2005
City Confident About ‘Transfer’ Pay
Cuts
Affects Cops, COs
By Reuven Blau
The city’s chief negotiator last week said he was confident
the City Council would pass legislation to require that Police and
Correction Officers seeking to transfer into the Fire Department
come in at the drastically reduced entry-level pay for the job rather
than carrying over their salaries.
That provision, which the Uniformed Firefighters’ Association
agreed to support as part of its tentative contract agreement with
the Bloomberg administration, is expected to save the city $4.5
million during the length of the four-year contract.
PBA Opposes Change
But Patrick J. Lynch, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association
president, has been critical of the proposed change, which figures
to discourage officers from transferring from the NYPD to other
city agencies. “Lowering the starting salary for cops who
roll over to the FDNY is a thinly veiled attempt to hold unhappy
police officers hostage,” Mr. Lynch told the Daily News on
Oct. 28, a day after the UFA deal was announced.
There were initial indications that the PBA would lobby the Council
against the transfer amendment. PBA spokesman Al O’Leary declined
to comment on that possibility.
The PBA, though, has clearly already reached out to Peter F. Vallone
Jr., the Chairman of the Council Public Safety Committee, concerning
the matter. “The chairperson has heard concerns from both
sides, and he is going to continue to look at it,” said Mike
Murphy, a spokesman for Mr. Vallone.
City officials have said that about 14 percent of the Firefighters
hired over the past four years previously worked for the NYPD. Presently,
such transfers allow the officers to carry over their pay levels.
If the legislation were approved, it would not affect the transferred
employees’ pension rights, which would include their service
in other departments.
City Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley expressed confidence that
the Council would agree to change the Administrative Code. “It
will happen,” Mr. Hanley said in a Nov. 3 phone interview.
“I have never been involved in piece of legislation that had
dual support that did not get passed.”
‘Not Their Issue’
Asked whether he was concerned the PBA might lobby against the
legislation, Mr. Hanley responded, “It’s not their issue.”
He noted that the proposed contract must first be ratified by the
UFA’s 8,700 members before the provision is placed before
the Council. Should the legislation get bottled up, however, the
city and UFA would have to renegotiate that credit, with the union
required to offer some other savings.
The NYPD loses over 3,000 cops each year to retirement, transfers
to other jurisdictions, and departures of officers who leave before
qualifying for pensions or are fired from the job. It costs the
city close to $100,000 to recruit and train each new cop.
The UFA wage accord includes a 17.52-percent wage increase over
50 months, a portion of which is financed by slashing the starting
salary for new hires to a split rate that totals $30,800, compared
to the old minimum of $36,878. The tentative deal also calls for
all Firefighters to work an extra 15-hour tour.
Close Ties
Anthony Garvey, the president of the Lieutenant’s Benevolent
Association, pointed out that Mr. Lynch and UFA President Stephen
J. Cassidy have had a good rapport.
“I think they have a very warm and close relationship,”
Mr. Garvey said. “I really don’t know what they are
going to do, but I think at the end of the day you have an obligation
to your members.”
After the PBA arbitration award was announced earlier this summer,
Mr. Cassidy was the lone union leader to defend the attrition-based
contract issued under the aegis of the Public Employment Relations
Board. “It’s a clear victory for the PBA,” Mr.
Cassidy said in June. “What the PBA achieved shattered the
civilian package; this contract is truly better.”
The city’s other uniformed union leaders, however, blasted
the deal, and questioned Mr. Lynch’s integrity. According
to Mr. Garvey and Detectives’ Endowment President Michael
Palladino, Mr. Lynch had assured the other uniformed unions at Fire/Police
Coalition meeting that the PAB would not sign off on an attrition-based
contract.
Forced to Give More
Police Officers have a much higher attrition rate than other uniformed
employees, including those in higher ranks in the NYPD. That has
forced the other unions to agree to additional concessions, such
as further stretching officers’ salary schedules and requiring
them to work extra or longer tours, to finance a similar raise.
The third-and fourth-year wage hikes in the UFA’s tentative
accord are consistent with those under the sanitation union contract
announced Oct. 12. That portion of the contract has set the pattern
for the next round of bargaining, Mayor Bloomberg has insisted.
Historically, the maximum pay rate for cops and Firefighters has
been equal.
Despite that fact, the Sergeants’ Benevolent Association
and the PBA have so far refused to accept those financial terms.
“I don’t think you are going to find an arbitrator [who
would] break that pattern,” Mr. Garvey said. “If they
want more than that, they are going to have to pay for it with more
appearances.”
|
