Will Further Delay Pact
PBA Appeals PERB Arbitration Ruling

By REUVEN BLAU

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association June 1 appealed the state Public Employment Relations Board's decision ordering the union and the Bloomberg administration to begin the process of choosing an arbitrator from the original list they were given in December.

PATRICK J. LYNCH: Swaps blame with city.

The appeal further prolongs the period for which Police Officers are working under a contract that expired Aug. 1, 2004. The PBA reiterated its contention that two of the nine arbitrators - Stanley Aiges and Arnold M. Zack - on the list that PERB's Director of Conciliation Richard Curreri compiled are prejudiced against cops.

Notably, the union asked to argue its case directly before the board, a request which if granted may stall the arbitration process even more.

City Wants to Move

In a separate legal move last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city was dropping its appeal filed in Albany County concerning the same issue, citing Mr. Curreri's decision and the city's push to expedite the process.

RICHARD CURRERI: Ruling appealed again.

"Today I have directed the Law Department to withdraw our appeal because the point being disputed is moot," Mr. Bloomberg said May 31 in a statement. "If the PBA had participated in the panel selection process that began in December 2006, this contract could have been settled by now and the issue of low pay for rookie cops would be resolved."

The Mayor also asserted that the PBA's appeal of Mr. Curreri's decision showed that the union has "no interest in settling this contract."

PBA President Patrick J. Lynch maintained that the union was "forced" to appeal. "Had the city accepted our proposal to eliminate the two controversial candidates from the list, we could have been moving directly into the arbitration process," he said in a statement. "By refusing the proposal, the city has further delayed this process by forcing us to appeal."

On Double-Zero Panel

Mr. Curreri's decision noted that the two arbitrators at issue, Mr. Zack and Mr. Aegis, were part of a panel operating under the jurisdiction of the city Board of Collective Bargaining, not PERB, when they issued an arbitration award in 1997 that began with a two-year wage freeze for cops. The PBA subsequently succeeded in getting legislation approved that permitted it to take contract disputes to the state panel.

The PBA, however, again questioned Mr. Curreri's authority to issue the list of arbitrators last year before the new board was appointed and confirmed. The union's appeal also continued to question the impartiality of Mssrs. Zack and Aiges.

Their inclusion on the panel selection list, the PBA argued, would force the union to use up half of its four strikes "in order to eliminate biased arbitrators who served on previous PBA/city arbitrations and who should not have been included in the first place."

Mr. Curreri has questioned the union's attacks, noting that Mr. Zack is the former president of the National Academy of Arbitrators.

PBA Piling On

The PBA's appeal also ratcheted up its attack against Mr. Zack. The union claimed "the contentious financial relationship between arbitrator Zack and the Cornell University School of Industrial Labor Relations" would have a "serious adverse impact" because the PBA plans to use labor scholars from that university as expert witnesses during the arbitration hearing.

The dispute started after the PBA alleged that Mr. Curreri assured them prior to issuing the list that he would not include any arbitrators involved in previous cases; he has denied making such a guarantee.

The contract arbitration process has been bogged down and sidetracked by legal maneuverings and various administrative decisions, which has frustrated the Bloomberg administration and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly in particular. The NYPD has struggled mightily to recruit new officers under the drastically reduced starting salary of $25,100 for officers during their first six months on the job.

In a decision the city hailed as a major victory, an Administrative Law Judge ruled last month that extending officers' tours beyond eight hours is a prohibited subject of collective bargaining and violates state law, a decision that could require cops to work more tours.

PBA Challenges Ruling

Last week, the PBA filed its anticipated appeal on that matter, arguing that ALJ Philip L. Maier's decision directly contradicts prior case law on the issue. The PBA's appeal also pointed out that the city itself wasn't seeking to have the issue declared a prohibited subject of collective bargaining.

In a surprising move, the city last week also appealed Mr. Maier's ruling, arguing that the city should be allowed to negotiate tour schedules.

Mr. Maier's decision was rendered after the PBA sought a declaratory ruling to determine what contract issues are considered outside the scope of bargaining and precluded from the upcoming arbitration hearing.

The ruling gave the NYPD the right to move its approximately 35,000 officers back to standard eight-hour tours, which would eliminate the accumulated multiple days off known as "chart days" that cops accrue under the current system. The city, however, has so far backed away from taking that step, since it would require the NYPD to radically change how officers are scheduled.