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Public Employee Press
Police civilians win meal money for overtime
The union recently resolved a longstanding dispute
on behalf of all civilian workers at the Police Dept. When employees worked
overtime, the agency was giving them only compensatory time off, despite
a somewhat unclear provision in the Citywide Contract that gives them
the right to money for overtime.
The issue came to a head when Police Administrative Aide Beverly Barnes,
a member of Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549, worked more
than 60 hours of overtime in the spring of 1999.
After the department denied her claim for meal money, she and PAA Marcia
Sims filed a Step 2 grievance in June 2000. This is a very important
issue, Sims said. Members in other agencies get supper money,
but we were just working for time.
A labor-management meeting failed to settle the issue and the union filed
an arbitration
request in September 2001. The issue wound its way through the system
for the next few years as the union met with the departmental and city
Labor Relations offices.
The union and the NYPD signed a stipulation in February 2005 that successfully
concluded the matter for the two grievants, and in March 2006 the women
finally received their meal money. DC 37 attorney Robin Roach handled
the arbitration case and the stipulation.
Once the stipulation was signed, the union held several labor-management
meetings to press the issue for all civilian employees of the Police Dept.,
which began paying the meal money in March, said Assistant Clerical Division
Director Ron Arnero.
Director Ronnie Harris summed up the significance of the issue: The
work of our members and staff on this grievance finally convinced the
NYPD to accept their obligation to conform to the Citywide Contract and
pay our meal money.
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