The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has negotiated a tentative contract deal with the Bloomberg Administration, giving its members raises equaling 17 percent over 4 years.
The deal, which must still be ratified by the PBA’s 23,000 members, will run from Aug. 1, 2006 to July 31, 2010, a high-ranking city official told The Post.
The proposed accord marks the first time that both have agreed to a new deal at the bargaining table since 1994.
Five of the last six contracts were decided by arbitration.
The deal will bring top maximum pay up to approximately $76,488, compared to the present $65,382. That pay rises to approximately $91,823 by including added longevity boosts, holiday pay, and night shift differentials.
Under the tentative contract, all cops would receive 4-percent hikes effective Aug. 1, 2006 and continuing through 2009.
If ratified, the starting salary for new cops will jump from approximately $36,000 to $40,000, Mayor Bloomberg noted during a press conference announcing the agreement.
“I have always believed that the best contract agreements are those that are reached at the bargaining table, and this is a good example of that,” he told reporters gathered in City Hall’s Blue Room.
The new agreement, which will restore vacation days for new hires and the day officers use to qualify at the shooting range, is consistent in its cost to the city with other uniformed union settlements reached over the past year. But those deals were negotiated before the city’s dramatic fiscal downturn.
Mayor Bloomberg maintained the deal would help the NYPD recruit and retain officers. “The contract provides stability to a key labor force in our city,” he added.
PBA President Patrick Lynch called the first negotiated deal in almost 15 years a “historic pact.” He added that the contract will move city cops’ salaries closer to what officers in neighboring suburbs are receiving.
“I’ve never been shy to stand on the steps of City Hall … and say when something is wrong,” he told reporters. “Well, I’m equally not shy to stand inside City Hall and say something is right.”