Chief Leader

Retro to October '06; Need 3 Years in Rank To Qualify; Regain Parity With Minor Giveups

That increase matches the difference between what the LBA had previously negotiated for part of a contract running between mid-2005 and mid-2007, providing raises of 3 and 3.15 percent, and a recent arbitration award for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association for a corresponding period that provided hikes of 4.5 and 5 percent.

More Givebacks in PBA Award

The PBA award, however, had included several givebacks aimed at reducing the city's costs, ranging from reduced benefits for future cops to the surrender of a vacation day by all officers in order to annually re-qualify at the NYPD gun range.

Other uniformed unions were determined to use reopener clauses that had been provided under their most-recent contracts to match the PBA wage gains, but several of their leaders had expressed reluctance to make similar givebacks.

LBA President Thomas Drogan was able to avoid some of the more-onerous concessions while still maintaining a long-standing salary differential between pay for Police Officers and his members by agreeing that the additional increases would only apply to maximum salary, which is reached after three years in the rank. He further reduced the cost of this to the city - and in doing so, the concessions required from the union - by delaying the payment of those increases in comparison to the PBA.

Delays in Payment

This means that those with less than three years of service as Lieutenants will not receive the increase to $104,306 until they mark that anniversary. And where Police Officers under the PBA award got an additional 1.5 percent raise at the start of their contract and another 1.85 percent a year later (those hikes total 3.5 percent once compounded), Lieutenants already at maximum will wait until slightly more than 14 months into their old contract - Oct. 8, 2006 - for the full amount to be implemented.

Aside from the delays in payment, the only concession the LBA was forced to make allows Lieutenants to be rescheduled without overtime for up to 20 days a year, compared to the old norm of 15. The same concession was imposed on Police Officers under the PBA award.

Two leaders of other uniformed unions which are seeking the additional money said they believed Lieutenant Drogan had found a relatively painless way of getting it for his rank and file.

"The Lieutenants' deal is encouraging news," Detectives Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino said. "Hopefully, we will be able to get in the door as soon as possible and make a deal for the additional compensation."

'A Good Deal'

Assistant Deputy Wardens/Deputy Wardens Association leader Sidney Schwartzbaum remarked, "I think it's a good deal. I don't see a downside, and they didn't destroy the career path."

He was referring to what several other unions had been forced to do to match the terms of a 2005 PBA arbitration award, when they had to agree to reduced starting salaries and a downgraded pay scale to produce the same savings the city had gained from a drastic reduction in those areas for Police Officers.

Those unions grudgingly agreed to the givebacks in order to maintain pay parity with the PBA. The LBA under former President Tony Garvey had refused to slash the pay scale for new promotees, instead providing savings by extending tours for all its members by 10 minutes daily and having new Lieutenants work an additional 13 tours annually for their first seven years on the job.

This deal figures to accelerate the reopener talks with the other uniformed unions. The day after it was announced, the Uniformed Firefighters Association - whose members have had the longest parity relationship with Police Officers, stretching back more than a century - met with Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley.

He said of the LBA deal, "I'm glad that reasonable people were able to sit down at the table and come up with maintenance of the parity relationship and the savings to get there."