DA Investigators Lose in Bid for 'Uniformed' Pact; Union Protests Ruling They're More Like Civilian Staff

By REUVEN BLAU

After more than four years of failed negotiations, an Office of Collective Bargaining mediator has resoundingly rejected the Detective Investigators Association's argument that its members should be included in the city's uniformed wage pattern, despite members' classification by the state as uniformed employees.

LAW'S ON HIS SIDE, ARBITRATOR ISN'T: Detective Investigators Association President John Fleming expressed frustration that although the state classifies his members as uniformed employees, an arbitrator ruled that they should continue to be bound by wage settlements governing civilian city workers. 'She completely ignored the law,' he asserted.

"There is no argument that the DIA has historically been grouped with the civilian pattern since its inclusion in city bargaining," ruled OCB mediator Gayle Gavin. "Four impasse panels all arrived at the same result."

Impact on EMS Unions?

The three-year decision could pose a major setback for the two unions representing Emergency Medical Service responders. Those labor organizations - District Council 37 Locals 2507 and 3621 - are hoping to use their leverage under recently enacted legislation granting their members uniformed status and the right to bargain independently from DC 37, which represents civilian employees.

The DIA represents 293 employees who work in the District Attorneys' Offices and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office. Their titles include: Rackets Investigator, Senior Rackets Investigator, Supervisor Rackets Investigator, County Detective, Detective Investigator, and Senior Detective Investigator. Many of them are retired NYPD Detectives.

Ms. Gavin's 41-page award noted that the city's workforce includes employees grouped into three categories: uniformed services, Career and Salary plan, and trades workers who are paid an industry prevailing wage under Section 220 of New York State Labor Law.

According to Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Martha Hirst, the DIA titles were found to be more akin to Career and Salary Plan employees because of their normal 9-to-5 work schedules and the salary ranges employed. That classification weighed heavily in Ms. Gavin's reasoning

Counter to State Law

Ms. Hirst's testimony, however, appeared to directly contradict the state law granting DIA members uniformed status, union officials contended. The issue has long been a matter of dispute.

In May 2005, the DIA filed a lawsuit charging that Office of Labor Relations officials were ignoring the 1989 state legislation granting its members uniformed status. Two months later, the city settled the litigation after agreeing to stipulate that it would adhere to the classification.

"The new level of bargaining clearly provides the union a better platform to achieve different treatment, but it does not guarantee it," Ms. Gavin said. "They are still classified as Rule 11 employees in the Career and Salary Plan."

DIA President John Fleming blasted her decision. "She completely ignored the law," he asserted.

During the protracted contract negotiations, the union president repeatedly pointed out that the DIA offered to have members work an additional half-hour each day in order to finance the 4.24 percent in savings that was generated by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association arbitration award in June 2005 in return for two 5-percent raises for incumbent Police Officers.

Ms. Gavin, however, ruled that the DIA should be included in the civilian wage pattern for the 2002 to 2005 round of bargaining. That wage-and-benefit pattern - which many unions sharply criticized - was set by DC 37 in April 2004.

Self-Funded Raises

That pact provided each DC 37 member with a $1,000 cash payment, a 3-percent retroactive raise in its second year, a 2-percent raise in the third year, and a 1-percent increase effective on the 25th month of the contract. Two percent of the final two raises was paid for by reduced salaries and benefits for new members and productivity savings.

Many other union leaders slammed the contract, arguing that it set a pattern that made subsequent negotiations with the city more difficult. Its terms were also inferior financially to a deal reached a month earlier by DC 37's state counterpart, the Civil Service Employees Association, that didn't require givebacks.

'Not Quite Detectives'

At the DIA arbitration hearing, the union contented that its members are legally recognized police officers who are most similar to NYPD Detectives.

But previous arbitration panels, Ms. Gavin said, all ruled against that comparison. "While Investigators share a similarity in duties with the Detectives and clearly have for decades, there remains much that distinguishes them," Ms. Gavin stated.

Investigators work for the city's District Attorneys and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office, she noted. Job requirements and career paths for each position are "markedly different" than those for NYPD Detectives, she added.

Only Police Officers, who must have 60 college credits or two years of military experience, are eligible to become NYPD Detectives. "This structured process to become [an] NYPD Detective is very different than the requirements and training required to be an Investigator in the DAs' Offices where there is no clear uniformity in training or experience required," Ms. Gavin said. "It simply does not lend itself to a comparison."

Pay Scales Different

She also noted that DAs have hired 40 percent of the bargaining unit into supervisory positions and above the minimum pay rates. In all, 66 percent of the DIA is now employed in such positions. "Importantly, it was uncontraverted that this practice clearly does not exist within the uniform services nor is it replicated anywhere else within city employment," Ms. Gavin said.

The DIA unsuccessfully argued that its members have assumed much of the work that was formerly done by NYPD Detectives. In 1986, the DIA had 146 members and none were assigned to Staten Island and there was no Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office, Mr. Fleming said.

The union contended that its members are involved in sophisticated long-term investigations that last year led to the seizure of 1,071 kilos of cocaine and 21 kilos of heroin. They helped win 76 A1 felony convictions in the narcotics division alone, according to the union.

Mr. Fleming pointed out that during the arbitration hearing in April it was revealed that the city had never conducted a job audit of the Detective Investigator title, despite drastic changes in the job responsibilities over the years. "So they have no idea what we do," he asserted.

But Ms. Gavin rejected that argument as well. "If there were such changes as the union has contended over the past 20 years that are not reflected in the job specifications, this panel must state the obvious," she said. "The DAs are their employers, not the city. Yet there is nothing on record to support or even suggest that any of the DAs ever sought to have the DCAS re-evaluate the job specifications because the duties and/or qualifications had changed to such a degree that the job specifications needed to be modified."

EMS Union Unconcerned

Bob Ungar, a spokesman for the Uniformed EMTs and Paramedics Union, said he believed the DIA arbitration award wouldn't affect the EMS unions.

"I don't think the two are really connected; their legislation came from the state and ours came from the City Council," he remarked during a March 28 phone interview. "We are members of the New York City Fire Department. We are negotiating a contract separately and outside the city agreement and every negotiation stands on its own."