|
February 3, 2006
NYPD Must Pay Overtime To Post-9/11 Detail
Big Payday for 35
By REUVEN BLAU
An arbitrator has ruled that the Police Department failed to pay
thousands of dollars in overtime to Headquarters Security Detail
officers over a two-year period beginning shortly after Sept. 11,
2001.
Office of Collective Bargaining arbitrator John E. Sands concluded
that the NYPD must compensate the improperly rescheduled officers
for all the hours they worked outside their normal tours.
Get $40,000 Apiece
Each of the 35 officers affected by the decision will receive approximately
$40,000 in back pay, according to the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
In the wake of Sept. 11, the NYPD suspended its duty chart and
assigned Police Officers to 12-hour tours. The department has the
ability to temporarily suspend the work chart in emergency situations
to increase manpower.
During that period, officers were paid overtime for all the hours
they worked that exceeded the length of their pre-9/11 tours of
duty, and also for their extra days of work.
On Oct. 14, 2001, the department went back to its regular tour
schedules, but officers securing 1 Police Plaza continued to work
12-hour shifts without being paid the overtime rate or a night differential.
"They treated them as if their chart remained suspended,"
said David Nicholson, a PBA attorney. "The department completely
failed to follow its own procedures."
The NYPD now has the ability to reschedule 15 tours without paying
officers the overtime rate. Normally, the department is required
to give officers 24 hours' notice before changing their tours.
PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said the arbitrator's decision should
teach the city a lesson. "It should show the city that they
shouldn't violate the rules in place, because in the long run it
will cost them more money," he said.
Ticket Quota Win
The decision was the second arbitration victory for the PBA in
a two-week span. A different arbitrator found that the NYPD violated
state labor law by requiring officers to meet traffic summons quotas
in a Brooklyn precinct.
The arbitrator, Bonnie Siber Weinstock, concluded that the department
imposed monthly, quarterly and annual traffic summons quotas. "The
city should cease and desist from maintaining a vehicular ticket
quota," Ms. Weinstock ordered.
The finding was notable because the PBA has been arguing for years
that an illegal quota system exists. The union has charged that
officers who fail to meet set standards are transferred, reassigned,
lose overtime, or are passed over for favorable assignments.
"If there were adequate numbers of Police Officers on the
street then precinct commanders wouldn't have to resort to illegal
summonses quotas," Mr. Lynch said.
Paul J. Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman, noted that the grievance
was filed by the PBA after the department transferred or reassigned
13 officers in the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn because of overall
poor performance. "The arbitrator concluded that none of the
officers were transferred or reassigned based solely on their lack
of summons activity," he said.
Precinct commanders, Mr. Browne stressed, would still set productivity
goals. But he noted that the precinct's commanders have been instructed
not to use specific quotas for summonses.
"However, nothing in the ruling prevents police commanders
from establishing productivity goals that include summons activity,"
he said. "In fact, commanders will be expected to do so."
Mr. Lynch replied, "They call it a goal, but if you add discipline
to it, it becomes a quota."
|
