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.”