Correctional Officers to Receive First Backpay Checks

On August 31 the Comptroller’s Office will be sending an advance payment of as much as $7,500 to the 23,000 correctional officers covered by the recent New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) arbitration agreement, Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi announced today. Also, on September 28, eligible members will receive the security enforcement differential and the uniform allowance payment, as much as $820. In total, correctional officers will receive as much as $8,300, which is about half of the retroactive pay owed to them.

“We know that correctional officers are unhappy that it took three years for them to win a new contract and they need their money as soon as possible. Because their pay is so complicated, it will take several months to accurately determine exactly how much each of the 23,000 workers should receive. For that reason, and because I know it has been difficult for correctional officers to wait for the money due them, I have directed my staff to make advance payments for the first time ever,” Hevesi said. “We have to individually recalculate almost 100 paychecks for 23,000 officers – that’s 2.3 million paychecks – and we have to make sure they receive every penny due to them. So it will take a bit longer to accurately determine the final payment. We are making every effort, including hiring temporary workers and authorizing overtime, to make sure that we can pay the rest of the money as soon as possible.”

The NYSCOPBA settlement is extremely complicated. It goes back to April, 2003 and affects almost 100 pay periods for some 23,000 workers. Correctional officers' pay has two basic parts, base pay and longevity pay. Officers also receive location pay, overtime pay, pre-shift briefing pay, and security enforcement differential.

The agreement provides a percent increase for base pay and a flat increase for longevity. So the Comptroller’s payroll office must determine which portion of the salary represents base pay and which represents longevity pay, apply the correct increase to each of them separately, and combine the two to determine the correct biweekly pay. This process must be repeated each time an employee had a change in salary. For every pay check since April 2003, the regular pay, overtime pay, pre-shift briefing, security enforcement differential, and location pay will be recalculated. Read more at osc.state.ny.us