COBA Deal: 8% Raise, Starting Pay Up to $35G; Specialty Pay Among Other Gains Under 27-Month Pact

COBA Deal: 8% Raise, Starting Pay Up to $35G; Specialty Pay Among Other Gains Under 27-Month Pact

By REUVEN BLAU

The Correction Officers Benevolent Association has reached a 27-month contract that will provide members with 4-percent raises in each year, hike the starting salaries for new hires to $35,000, and provide a new specialty pay to hundreds of officers.

NORMAN SEABROOK: Key gains, no givebacks. The tentative contract, which was announced on the Mayor's Sept. 21 radio show on WABC, is modeled after agreements the Bloomberg administration previously reached with the unions representing FDNY supervisors, NYPD Sergeants, and other uniformed groups.

Top Pay to Be $68G

COBA President Norman Seabrook stressed that the deal involved no givebacks. He also noted that the maximum salary would rise to $68,475 after five years in service, up from the current $63,309 after 5-1/2 years. With longevity bonuses included, he added, the top pay would rise to $75,334 for officers with 20 years on the job.

The raises and other added benefits are designed to encourage more individuals to join the Correction Department, which has been struggling to attract new officers. As a result, the department's overtime spending shot up by $30 million, to $100 million, between the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years.

JAMES F. HANLEY: A variation on pattern. The proposed pact, which would run from Aug. 1, 2007 to Oct. 31, 2009, must still be ratified by the union's approximately 8,300 members.

Under the tentative agreement, all Correction Officers would receive 4-percent hikes retroactive to Aug. 1 this year and on Aug. 1, 2008, representing a slightly longer version of the pattern established in March by the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

Length Funds Benefits

COBA used the extra three months at the end of the accord to help fund added annuity boosts, welfare-fund raises, and longevity increases.

Mayor Bloomberg noted that Correction Officers refer to the jails as the toughest precincts. "The work of Correction Officers may not be as visible as that of other uniformed officers, but our appreciation for their service and for the risks that they face is just as deep," he said. "This agreement gives our hard-working Correction Officers a well-deserved raise."

COBA's tentative deal also places further pressure on the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which is working under a contract that expired Aug. 1, 2004. A resolution isn't expected before next spring, as arbitration hearings have been set for November.

"Now we have contracts going forward with everyone but the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association," the Mayor said. "We've offered them some things that I think they'd be well-advised to take."

Mr. Seabrook said that COBA worked with Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley to increase the starting pay for new hires without making givebacks. Under the proposed contract, the starting salary for workers appointed on or after Sept. 1, 2008 would be increased to $35,000 at the end of the contract, up from the current $26,667.

Two-Tiered System

There is a two-tiered system, one pay schedule for Correction Officers hired on or after Jan. 1, 2006 and prior to Sept. 1, 2008, and another for officers appointed after Sept. 1, 2008.

The current class of approximately 190 recruits, which began training several weeks ago, will have their salaries rise to $37,577 upon ratification. By contrast, future hires appointed on or after Sept. 1, 2008 would get $35,000. After five years of service, the maximum pay would be $68,475 for both groups.

The proposed agreement also establishes a new category of up to 4.9 percent of the bargaining unit designated for special assignment. Officers in that group would receive a 3-percent rate increase payable after six months, Mr. Hanley said. After each year, it would rise by 3 percent until the maximum 12-percent hike, reached after four years in the designation.

The Correction Commissioner will have full discretion over who receives the special assignment.

'A Major Homerun'

"We've never had this before," Mr. Seabrook said during a phone interview shortly after the deal was announced. "Getting something like this is a major homerun."

The specialty pay places Correction Officers closer to par with Police Officers, Mr. Seabrook added. "Hundreds of members now have the opportunity to reap the rewards that the Police Department has been reaping for years," he remarked.

The increase mirrors a section in the pattern-setting UFA accord, which gave approximately 500 firefighters in HazMat and Rescue units a 12-percent "specialty pay" raise.

The city did not include the specialty pay as part of the basic package, leading UFA President Steve Cassidy to describe it as "free money."

Mr. Seabrook, however, was highly critical of Mr. Cassidy for leaving a uniformed coalition to reach that deal, and actually filed an improper practice charge asking the city's Board of Collective Bargaining to either void the agreement or rule that it could not be used as a binding pattern in dealings with other uniformed unions.

'Won't Hold Them Hostage'

COBA has since withdrawn that petition, which accused the city of a failure to bargain in good faith by employing a "divide-and-conquer" strategy to make a secret deal with the UFA. Mr. Seabrook was angered that the UFA had stepped away from an established coalition of uniformed unions to make the deal without apprising the other groups.

"I'm not going to hold my members hostage, because the pattern is the pattern," Mr. Seabrook said. "Now I know who I can go into a coalition with and who I can't." The COBA president stressed that he negotiated the increased starting salary without making any givebacks. In contrast, the UFA opted to "fund" an increase in starting pay by accepting several concessions for future Firefighters covering their first five years on the job: a reduction in paid holidays each year from 12 to 6, a cut in night-shift differential, and the loss of most annuity money during that period.

Tax-Deferred Benefit

The tentative COBA agreement includes several other benefits. The city's contribution to the annuity fund would be increased by $370 per year per employee retroactive to July 1, 2007.

Unlike a longevity bonus, the annuity fund is tax-deferred until employees begin to receive the benefit at retirement. Investment earnings on the accumulations in the annuity account are also tax-deferred.

In addition, the longevity schedule will be increased by $314 for each step of the schedule, effective Nov. 1, 2007.

The city's annual contribution to the active welfare fund will also increase by $200 for active and retired union members. Benefit funds provide city workers, retirees, and dependents with an array of supplemental health benefits such as for prescriptions and eyeglasses not covered under city-administered health insurance plans.

The increased salary, Mr. Seabrook said, will hopefully persuade more individuals to join the department. "I think the problem was solved," he remarked. "If it's just that nobody wants to become a Correction Officer or a Police Officer, that's a horse of a different color. We are going to soon find out."