To All Delegates and Members

February 1, 2002

In response to the Department's unnecessary and unjustified suspension of the duty chart and other drastic measures such as canceling individual vacation days in connection with the World Economic Forum (WEF), the PBA has filed a grievance with the NYPD Office of Labor Relations, charging contract violations.

By their actions, the Department has shown a callous disregard for our members' personal lives - which, as you know only too well, have already been seriously disrupted in recent months because of real unforeseen emergencies. On Jan. 29, the Department suspended the chart by Finest Message at about 1335 hours on Tuesday, leaving many of our members without the 24-hours notice required by the collective bargaining agreement.

The contract says the Department has "the right to reschedule employees' tours of duty on 10 occasions without payment of pre-tour or post-tour overtime provided that the Department gives at least 24 hours notice to employees whose tours are to be rescheduled."

Clearly, the Department was aware of the WEF conference and its accompanying manpower needs long before Jan. 29. The Department had plenty of time to give police officers the notice they needed to attend to child-care issues and other matters of personal concern. The Department also could have handled coverage of the WEF without the vacation cancellations and other disruptive measures.

We have asked the Department to pay overtime to all officers who worked outside their regularly scheduled tours without proper notice. Also, for officers whose tours were rescheduled with proper notice, we have asked and that these rescheduled tours be counted toward the 10 allowed under the contract.

Furthermore, it is our contention that when the chart is suspended, the collective bargaining agreement requires that overtime computation be based on an eight-hour workday - not eight hours and 35 minutes or eight hours and 23 minutes - thus giving you more overtime compensation. A separate grievance will be filed with the NYPD Office of Labor Relations on this issue.

We also urge you to keep track of and document all your scheduled tours during this period as well as all tours you actually worked so you can collect your compensation should the grievance be decided in our favor.

Fraternally,

Patrick J. Lynch
President