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Cops’ arbitration decision provides pay increase
May 22, 2008 12:23 PM
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In a decision keenly anticipated in municipal labor circles, an arbitration panel on May 19 awarded New York City police officers a retroactive 9.7 percent pay increase over two years and, in exchange for significant concessions, raised starting pay — which had been slashed to $25,100 in a 2005 contract that crippled recruitment — to $35,881.
City officials said that the higher pay hike was largely offset by givebacks worth 2.8 percent a year. Notably, in exchange for the 40 percent rise in starting salaries, new hires lose 10 of their 20 vacation days.
The city’s uniformed unions, which historically have maintained rough parity with one another, had agreed to increases of 6.15 percent for a comparable period. They are expected to exercise re-opener clauses in their deals that entitle them to resume bargaining with the city. Any improvement in wages in those pacts may be linked to givebacks such as fewer vacation days.
The stakes in this arbitration were high because the city has been unable to fill Police Academy classes since the $40,000 starting pay for cops was cut in the preceding contract in order to finance higher pay increases for incumbents. (The UFT, in its 2005 contract that provided a 15 percent pay increase over 52 months, refused to make such a tradeoff.)
The three-member panel’s award, like the 1985 binding arbitration decision for the UFT that gave teachers extra money on early salary steps, modifies the citywide bargaining pattern to address serious recruitment and retention problems.
The new police contract runs from Aug. 1, 2004, to July 31, 2006, meaning the two sides must now begin bargaining on yet another retroactive deal.
The independent arbitrator and the city’s representative on the arbitration panel voted for the agreement, while the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association’s representative voted against it.
