Metro

City park ‘pre$erve’: 465 jobs saved in labor pact

With just days to go before the layoff notices went out, the city and its largest municipal union reached a breakthrough agreement late yesterday to spare 465 jobs in the Parks Department.

The pact allows the city to proceed with a plan to ask a number of full-time parks workers to voluntarily switch to six-month seasonal duties over the next three years.

At the end of their stints, the workers would have to leave the payroll entirely.

Officials estimated the reduction in full-time staffers would save $16 million this fiscal year — enough to avert the long-threatened layoffs.

“As the mayor has said repeatedly from the beginning of the budget process, if a union is willing to sit down and work with us to create savings, we can avoid some layoffs,” said mayoral spokesman Marc LaVorgna.

“This requires both sides being realistic about what’s possible and making real compromises.”

The deal came just a couple of days after Cas Holloway, the former environmental-protection commissioner, assumed the duties of deputy mayor for operations and took over labor relations.

Also looming was the stunning contract ratified this week by members of the Civil Service Employees Association, the state’s largest public-employee union, who agreed to a wage freeze, nine furlough days over two years and higher employee health-care contributions to avert 10,000 layoffs threatened by Gov. Cuomo.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts issued a statement saying she was “pleased” to save so many parks jobs.

“The union protected the jobs of over 500 of its members when it agreed to allow the city to offer a voluntary attrition program,” Roberts said, coming in with a possible job-loss number slightly above the city’s.