Headed to Arbitration
Det. Union's Wage Case Goes Cold

By REUVEN BLAU

After more than three years of failed negotiations, contract talks between the Detective Investigators' Association and the Bloomberg administration are headed to arbitration.

JOHN M. FLEMING: Treat us like real cops.

Office of Collective Bargaining mediator Gayle Gavin has been appointed as the third-party moderator. She will issue a non-binding ruling based on a fact-finding procedure involving an evidentiary hearing. Her recommendations will likely offer a framework for an eventual deal.

Work Directly for DAs

The DIA represents 296 Investigators who are duly appointed Police Officers who work for the five District Attorneys' Offices and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office.

The union contends that the city Office of Labor Relations is failing to comply with a new law classifying its members as uniformed workers. According to the DIA, city negotiators have insisted that the union agree to the same financial terms and supplemental benefits negotiated by District Council 37 and other civilian unions.

Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley replied, "It has always been my policy not to comment on ongoing negotiations. I'm certainly not going to change my position now."

The DIA contract expired April 13, 2003. The union filed a lawsuit in May 2005 charging that OLR officials were ignoring the 1989 state legislation granting its members uniformed status. Two months later, the city settled the litigation after agreeing to stipulate that it would adhere to the classification.

'City's Ducking Us'

But DIA President John M. Fleming contended that the Bloomberg administration has failed to recognize that agreement. "This is really the city trying to grasp at anything to try to stop us from bargaining with this," he asserted during a phone interview last week. "They are ignoring the fact that the majority of my members are retired First and Second Grade Detectives."

Roughly 70 percent of its members are retired Detectives, and they average 20 years of investigative experience, according to Mr. Fleming. Attempting to categorize them as civilian workers is "a ludicrous position to take," he charged. "The city is basically saying that we are like rent a-cops. They see us as a second-class police officer."

The union president has said the DIA has offered to have members work an additional half-hour each day in order to finance the 4.24 percent in savings that was generated by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association arbitration award in June 2005 in return for two 5-percent raises for incumbent Police Officers.

Want Parity With Cops

His members, he continued, have told him that they won't accept anything less then what the other police unions negotiated during the last round of bargaining. The unions representing Detectives and Lieutenants have negotiated four-year contracts providing 17-percent raises funded in part by a cut in pay or longer work schedules for newly promoted officers.

Mr. Fleming argued that the dragged-out contract dispute "is another example of the city imposing their will on a small union and bullying them." He noted that many of his members have obtained special waivers allowing them to continue to collect their NYPD pensions.

Mr. Hanley responded, "We deal with all unions respectfully, and they are treated exactly the same."

Uniformed status has long been a contentious issue for the city's various law-enforcement unions. In March 2005, the City Council passed a bill granting that designation to Traffic Enforcement Agents, School Safety Agents, and several other titles.

Consistent Opposition

The Bloomberg administration, however, is opposing that bill and a similar measure granting the uniformed classification to Emergency Medical Technicians and Fire Alarm Dispatchers. The city has sued to block both those amendments to the Administrative Code.

The unions believe that uniformed status will enable them to negotiate for specific needs such as holiday pay, equipment allowance, and overtime salary adjustments.

For the DIA, the arbitration process may drag out. Preliminary briefs are not due until Feb. 27, and the evidentiary hearing has been scheduled for April 11. "I would hope that the city would stand behind whatever the arbitrator would rule," Mr. Fleming remarked.