Say City Squeezing Them
Captains to Pursue Contract Arbitration

By REUVEN BLAU

After three fruitless mediation sessions, the Captains' Endowment Association contract is headed to arbitration, a process that the union has steadfastly avoided since a bad experience in the early 1990s.

JOHN F. DRISCOLL: 'Mayor doesn't appreciate us.'

"I'm on record being opposed to arbitration," said CEA President John F. Driscoll in a Feb. 1 phone interview. "I have bent over backwards to try and work out a deal. But every time I've put forward proposals, they've always been undervalued; the only alternative I have is to go to arbitration."

Offered More Work Time

Mr. Driscoll contended that the Bloomberg administration has rejected offers from the union to extend tours or have new Captains work added shifts in order to match the 4.24 percent in savings the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association generated under the attrition-based award issued by an arbitration panel in 2005.

The Lieutenants' Benevolent Association and the Detectives' Endowment Association have both used similar concessions to create savings for the city, Mr. Driscoll noted. "I don't know why I'm being treated differently," he said. "The offers that they've given us are just woefully out of line with the contracts they've reached with the other unions."

JAMES F. HANLEY: 'Treating Captains the same.'

Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley declined to discuss the negotiations. "I don't comment on ongoing bargaining and I'm not going to change my policy now," he said. "We are treating them the same way that we treat all other city employees."

The CEA and city negotiators have spent the past several months haggling over the values of various concessions. A significant portion of the 10.25 percent in wage hikes over two years under the PBA award was offset by the reduction in the pay scale for future hires.

Paid Price in Past

But the pay scale for Captains has suffered since a prior CEA leader, Bill Kelly, was forced to make similar concessions beyond those accepted by the PBA to match that union's wage gains under a 1988 contract. After the contract problem contributed heavily to Mr. Kelly's defeat at Mr. Driscoll's hands, the union's focus had been on upgrading the scale for new Captains - the group that bore the brunt of the concessions more than 15 years ago.

RAYMOND W. KELLY: Overtime cap not his idea?

The CEA represents 750 Captains; its contract expired Oct. 31, 2003.

According to the CEA, the city's last offer included a 40-hour annual overtime cap. Mr. Driscoll called that proposal "patently ridiculous." He added, "That means we could work 2,000 hours and they would only give us credit for 40 hours or something like that."

Unlike the other ranks in the NYPD, Captains receive compensatory time rather than extra pay for the overtime that they work. That setup has created a situation where lower-ranking Lieutenants who work overtime typically earn more money than their superiors.

BCB Ruled Against NYPD

The Captains' overtime issue has long been a matter of contention. In May 2005, the Board of Collective Bargaining ruled that the city violated the CEA's collective-bargaining agreement by failing to negotiate with the union before placing a 1,556-hour cap on the amount of comp time Captains can accumulate. The issue, the BCB concluded, is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining.

Since that ruling, Mr. Driscoll charged, the NYPD has retaliated by auditing and subtracting comp time from his members that the department had previously signed off on. In response, the CEA brought another unfair labor practice charge against the NYPD. That complaint is still pending.

The NYPD has contended that it removed the cap on comp time in December 2001 as part of the aftermath of the exhaustive Sept. 11, 2001 search-and-rescue efforts. As a result of that activity, many officers in ranks from Captain to Deputy Chief accrued more than a year of comp time.

Tightened Rules

That situation has resulted in some individuals leaving the department and spending over a year on payroll as they exhaust their comp time, while continuing to hold civil service positions that cannot be filled, according to the NYPD. It also reduces the number of experienced supervisors and impinges on the department's ability to determine its staffing and scheduling needs, the department argued. To solve that problem, in April 2004 the NYPD moved to reinstate the cap. In addition, the city attempted to force Captains and other supervisors to use their comp time within 30 days.

The BCB majority decision stated, however, that the department must negotiate with the union before implementing such a modification. "We find that the department must bargain with the CEA over any imposition of or changes in the limitation on the accrual and use of compensatory time and related procedures," the 4-2 decision stated.

The BCB ruling suggested that the city address the matter during the contract talks with the union. "To the extent the city alleges that the use of compensatory time earned for performing overtime work impinges on its staffing decisions, it may seek to address these concerns through negotiations," the panel majority stated.

Kelly Not on Board?

But sources indicated last week that Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly hasn't insisted that the city change the current overtime policy for Captains. The source also noted that Mr. Kelly, who is not directly involved in the negotiations, was disappointed with the latest developments.

"He's supportive of the union," Mr. Driscoll said, referring to Mr. Kelly. "He knows this is a crisis for the NYPD, but he's not in charge of negotiations; Commissioner Hanley is."

Mr. Driscoll said that he has had an amiable relationship with the Labor Commissioner in the past. The union president directed his frustration over the current contract stalemate towards Mayor Bloomberg.

"What's really disheartening is that this is the experience corps of the New York City Police Department," Mr. Driscoll asserted. "Would Bloomberg treat the executives at Bloomberg Inc. the same way he's treating us? I dare say he wouldn't because then he wouldn't be the billionaire that he is today."

Fewer Lieuts. Seek Job

Other factors may also be playing a role in the stalled contract talks. The NYPD has recently been struggling to attract Lieutenants to take the Captain promotion test. According to Mr. Driscoll, when he was promoted in 1992, 99 percent of the eligible Lieutenants applied for the promotion test.

Only 473 Lieutenants out of 1,700 eligible supervisors took the most recent exam for Captain, Mr. Driscoll said. "And they don't see that as a problem?" he asked incredulously. "In the past, 99 percent of the eligible Lieutenants would take it; in the future you are going to be having nobody taking it."

The drop-off has coincided with a series of police union contracts that have struggled to keep pace with inflation and left officers falling further behind what their counterparts in suburban police departments are paid. The added pressure placed on Captains over the past decade by the NYPD's COMPSTAT system, which judges Captains' performance based on computerized statistical models, has also made some Lieutenants reluctant to move up, Mr. Driscoll said.

The union president called the city's latest offer "insulting." That deal included a 70-hour annual overtime cap, according to the CEA. Both sides will now work to select the chairman of the tripartite panel from a list of arbitrators drawn up by the Public Employment Relations Board.

"Unlike executives in other agencies, my people are working 24/7," Mr. Driscoll said. "Obviously the city doesn't appreciate the work that my members do."