CEA OKs Pact; $50G Back Pay Due for Some

CEA OKs Pact; $50G Back Pay Due for Some


NYPD Captains and other top supervisors Aug. 14 overwhelmingly approved a new wage contract that will give them 37 percent in raises over a 101-month period.

JOHN F. DRISCOLL: Nice timing on big payouts. The 604-48 tally in favor of the deal - with nearly 85 percent of the Captains Endowment Association's 770 members returning ballots - paves the way for the payment of sizable retroactive checks worth between $44,000 and $52,000 for senior supervisors in most ranks represented by the union.

'Very Pleased'

"I'm very pleased, and so are my members," CEA President John F. Driscoll said in a phone interview following the ballot count.

The unusually long contract, as well as the huge back-pay - which will be implemented in two separate checks in October and November - are partly the product of a bargaining stalemate that existed for close to two years on a successor agreement to the CEA pact that expired on Oct. 31, 2003.

Mr. Driscoll had deferred his negotiations with the Bloomberg administration to await the outcome of a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association arbitration that was decided in June 2005. The PBA award wound up posing two problems for him: it featured a reduced pay scale for new hires that he was required to replicate in order to match the two 5-percent pay raises it provided, and he contended that Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley was not offering him fair value for the concessions that the CEA leader offered.

Mr. Driscoll earlier this year filed for contract arbitration, but he continued talking with Mr. Hanley, and late last month they were able to resolve their differences in the course of a four-hour negotiation.

'Unborn' Not Unscathed

The city's proposal until that time, Mr. Driscoll said last week, "would have been killing the unborn [meaning those not yet promoted to Captain] and killing my current members."

The deal that was ultimately reached involves givebacks affecting future promotees. Those who reach the rank on or after Sept. 1 will be working under a condensed pay scale until March 1, 2009 that would leave some making nearly $2,000 less than earlier promotees at the same level. They will also receive six fewer annual leave days and a $650 reduction in city annuity fund contributions during that period, and will have to work an additional hour - 9 instead of 8 - for each shift during their first five years in the rank.

Captain Driscoll pointed out, however, that the longer tours would not be particularly onerous for future promotees, since as Lieutenants they are already working shifts of 8 hours, 45 minutes. "My next contract," he added, "I'll look to ameliorate that as well."

'Limited the Hit'

Because the other concessions will vanish within 18 months, he said, "I limited, as greatly as possible, any hit on the unborn."

The pact runs from Nov. 1, 2003 through March 31, 2012 and is the longest agreement ever negotiated by a city union. The basic pay raises are in line with earlier deals reached by other police unions, starting with the PBA-inspired 5-percent raises that are retroactive to November of 2003 and 2004.

When the final 4-percent raise under the pact takes effect on April 1, 2011, starting salary for Captains will reach $114,978 - compared to the $83,908 entry salary as of Oct. 31, 2003 - and maximum pay will be $141,933.

Deputy Inspectors will see their maximum pay hit $149,404 in the final year of the deal, and top pay for Inspectors will go to $157,319.

Other Benefit Upgrades

The deal also provides increases in city annuity and welfare fund contributions, a $1,500 increase in longevity differentials, a boost in the number of Captains detailed to higher ranks with a corresponding salary increase, and creation of a Savings Incentive Plan for members who belong to the city's tax-deferred 457 plan and invest at least one percent of their salaries in it each year.

Mr. Driscoll noted that Captains at maximum salary will receive $44,325 in retroactive pay, with an installment worth $25,875 before taxes in their Oct. 19 checks and the balance of $18,450 due in Nov. 16 checks. For senior Deputy Inspectors, the payments on those dates will be $27,237 and $19,422, for a total of $46,659, while Inspectors at top pay will get checks of $28,678 and $20,448 for a total of $49,126.

Deputy Chiefs will be receiving retroactive checks totaling $51,753, in payments of $30,211 and $21,542, and Surgeons will get checks of $22,510 and $16,048, for a total of $38,558.

The timing of the payments offers a political bonus to Mr. Driscoll, who nonetheless insisted he would have made the deal a year earlier if the city had obliged him. He is facing a challenge for re-election and ballots are due to go out Oct. 16, meaning members will receive them at virtually the same time that they get their first back-pay checks.