2017 NJ STATE PBA Collective Bargaining Seminar
Protecting the rights of employees who serve and protect us
Capping a day devoted to an officer’ s rights, not to mention 15 hours of sessions devoted to improving working conditions for members, the final presentation addressed the Fair Labor Standards Act( FLSA) and its impact on comp time for law enforcement officers and the use of bodyworn video. Some of the important notes included:
• All that’ s required to allow comp time under FLSA is an agreement or understanding prior to performing the work for using comp time in lieu of cash. The agreement could also mean past practices.
• Performing duties can equal acceptance of taking comp time in lieu of cash. Your collective bargaining agreement can control an employee’ s choice of receiving time off or cash.
• Using comp time must be granted in reasonable time and must be granted unless it disrupts department operations.
• Your contract should account for what procedures are used to request comp time and under what circumstances it can be denied.
• One request for using comp time requiring another officer to
MERRICK LIMSKY, MARCIA MITOLO- Limsky & Mitolo
work overtime is not sufficient reason to claim undue disruption of department operations.
• You can negotiate when comp time requests may be denied.
• There is no use-it-or-lose-it restriction. Think of the cash equivalent. It is something you earned. You would never give up your cash or your overtime earnings.
• Negotiating beneficial comp time benefits may be a good way to gain additional compensation in a time when departments are restricted by salary caps.
• Like cameras in cars, body-worn video can validate the actions the officer took when responding to a call.
• You can put a demand in your contract to negotiate any procedures associated with the use of body-worn video.
• There has to be training, and training is negotiable. It can’ t be a 20-minute class. If you are going to be responsible for using the camera, there should be training.
• Deactivation is where many of the disciplinary issues come up: When is it OK to turn the camera off?
• If you are going to use body-worn video, go all in. If one of those cameras caught the incident, it could provide an argument that the officer’ s action was justified.
• If you want to fight the implementation of body-worn video, use the cost as an argument. The $ 10,000 to $ 20,000 annual cost for use and storage is equal to the cost of giving an officer a half-percent raise. d
50 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ FEBRUARY 2017