FDNY Officers In Marine Unit Sue;

Denied Specialty Bonus
FDNY Officers In Marine Unit Sue

By ARI PAUL

The 13 Special Operations Command officers in the Fire Department's Marine Division have filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against the city and their union because they did not receive a raise their fellow officers got under their current wage pact.

JOHN McDONNELL: Sued by 'Marine' members. The five-year contract with the city, which Uniformed Fire Officers Association members ratified Aug. 10, includes a 12-percent raise for Special Operations Command and Hazardous Materials Unit officers starting Sept. 1.

'Illegitimate Denial'

"Although all of the municipal defendants and the UFOA agree that the Marine Division was, and remains a crucial component of the Special Operations Command, directly involved in national as well as multi-state and municipal anti-terrorist attack duties, its superior officers were not included in the Special Operations Command 12-percent component," the complaint stated. "The failure of the defendant UFOA and its executives to include the plaintiffs in the 12 percent SOC pay component of the collective bargaining agreement was not due to any legitimate factor."

The plaintiffs are asking the UFOA to pay each officer $650,000. They are also contending that because the selection of who was eligible for the differential was "arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and without legitimate reason," the matter should "be remanded to the UFOA and the municipal defendants for further action to insure the entitlement of the plaintiffs to the SOC hazardous pay provision."

The UFOA contract's provision followed the Uniformed Firefighters Association contract settled in March, which provided a 12-percent salary differential to Firefighters assigned to either the Special Operations Command or the Hazardous Materials Unit.

UFOA President John J. McDonnell, a named defendant, declined to comment.

City: See You in Court

"We have received the papers and will be responding in court," said Georgia Pestana, the Law Department's Labor and Employment Law Division Chief.

The lawsuit also named Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Martha Hirst as defendants.

The 13 plaintiffs are officers Michael Finer, James Dalton, Louis Guzzo, Joseph Stark, Richard Johnson, James Zodkowit, Thomas Piambino, Joesph DiLorenzo, John Drury, Robert Orloff, Peter Farenkopf, James McCabe and Timothy Maloney.

"There was a breach of fiduciary duty by the UFOA to its own members, to its own Special Ops superior officers," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Ronald Podolsky. "It's like the Green Berets not getting hazard-duty pay."