SERGEANTS BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION
Sarge union, city in dispute on ‘late’ push for 12-hr. tours
City imposes 11th hour demand NYPD sergeants work 12-hour tours in contract talks
NY Daily News
City imposes 11th hour demand NYPD sergeants work 12-hour tours in contract talks
By Thomas Tracy
March 20, 2025
The city is holding a new contract with NYPD sergeants hostage unless the union agrees to work 12-hour tours — a non-starter the Sergeants Benevolent Association says would endanger both their members and the public.
After two years of negotiations, the SBA leadership had signed a memorandum of agreement on a contract with the city they were preparing to put out to members for a vote.
But at the 11th hour the city announced that the new contract couldn’t go forward unless NYPD sergeants agree to 12-hour tours, President Vincent Vallelong told the Daily News.
“For the past year and a half, we’ve told the city we didn’t want 12-hour tours because it’s not good for our members.
It’s not good for their health, it’s not good for their home life and, because they make life and death decisions, it’s not good for anyone,” Vallelong said.
“And now they shove 12 hours down our throats at the last minute.”
Union delegates shot down the new caveat at a Thursday morning meeting, said Vallelong who added that studies performed by the NYPD and the Department of Justice show police officers in leadership positions tend to make bad decisions after working 10 hours.
In 2023, the city Department of Investigation determined that lengthier overtime shifts were associated with an increased amount of workplace injuries, vehicle collisions, risk of lawsuits, and substantiated CCRB complaints. “Last week we had a shooting in Staten Island where people were in the crossfire,” Vallelong said.
“The sergeant took control, told his officers to put their guns away and step back, and took care of the whole scene. If that sergeant’s judgment was clouded because they can’t think straight after working for 12 hours, the outcome could have been very different.”
Vincent J. Vallelong, president of the NYPD Sergeant’s Union, speaks during a protest of Mayor Eric Adams outside the Apollo Theatre before Adams delivers his State of the City Address on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 in Manhattan, New York.
On Thursday, the city was asked to come to the delegates meeting and discuss their 12-hour tour request, but they declined, Vallelong said. An email to City Hall was not immediately returned.
A similar push to move officers in the city Department of Correction to 12-hour tours was pulled back earlier this month after the plan sparked anger among rank and file members.
In 2023, the Police Benevolent Association, which represents NYPD police officers, agreed to 10 and 12-hour tours in their contract.
Rank-and-file cops in 12 police precincts and 12 transit districts are currently working longer tours, union officials said.
The results have been mixed: cops in fully staffed precincts enjoy the extra time off that comes with the longer work days, but in precincts where cops are short-staffed, officers find themselves working more hours, sources with knowledge of the plan say.
PBA President Patrick Hendry said the extended tours, known as a “modern duty chart” are “the gold standard in law enforcement agencies around the country.”
“The PBA is continuing to work with the department to refine the modern chart pilot program,” Hendry said.
“Ultimately, the NYPD needs to fully staff the pilot program commands in order for members to receive the full benefits.
That’s why we are also fighting for incentives to help relieve the NYPD’s current staffing crisis, which is destroying quality of life for cops across this city, regardless of which tours they work.”
There are currently 4,300 sergeants in the NYPD, which has about 36,000 members.
By July, 1,100 sergeants will have vested their pensions and would be free to retire, said Vallelong, adding that the NYPD hasn’t promoted anyone to sergeant since January.
Twelve-hour tours are an “unrealistic” goal for sergeants who already work extra hours at the end of their shift to do department paperwork and have an hour or more commute home, union members said.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said one Bronx sergeant who asked to remain anonymous.
“We’ve said no from the beginning and for them to turn around and throw it on the table at the last minute is absurd. “I guess it’s easy for people who don’t work 12-hour tours to think that this is going to work.”
The city’s sergeants haven’t had a contract in two years because of an ongoing wage disparity affecting more than 1,200 supervisors that began when the city increased the salaries of rank-and-file police officers.
After the city boosted salaries of long-serving cops, the SBA union realized that many sergeants are now earning less than the officers they oversee.
Under the expired contract, the base pay for sergeants, who supervise several cops at a time while responding to 911 calls, starts at $98,000 a year and balloons to about $118,000 within five years. After the newest contract with the PBA, experienced police officers can earn about $115,000, SBA members said.
The impasse comes as the Adams administration repeatedly boasts it has successfully negotiated contracts with unions representing nearly 97% of the city’s workforce.
Over the past year, the city has negotiated contracts with the Police Benevolent Association, United Federation of Teachers, United Probation Officers Association and Uniformed Sanitation Workers’ Union, to name a few.
SBA President Vincent Vallelong on Fox News
SBA President Vincent Vallelong discusses pay disparity issue on Fox News.
NYC SBA On the Airwaves
NYC SBA On the Airwaves
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Article on SBA Pay Disparity in NY Daily News | January 7, 2025
Article on SBA Pay Disparity in NY Daily News
NYPD sergeants union to protest over contract that pays them less than officers
By Thomas Tracy
Hundreds of NYPD sergeants are expected to protest outside Mayor Adams’ upcoming “State of the City” address over a bizarre contract impasse that’s left some sergeants with less pay than the police officers they supervise, union officials said Tuesday.
The off-duty sergeants, as well as their supporters in the City Council, will converge on the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Thursday, where Mayor Adams will discuss last year’s successes — which includes a 5% reduction in crime — and outline his plans for the next year. Thursday’s rally will be the first time police officers have publicly protested against Adams, a retired NYPD captain.
“This union has handled itself in a professional manner in trying to negotiate fairly,” Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong told the Daily News Tuesday. “We’ve tried to do it behind closed doors, but all we’re getting is lip service. The mayor has let this fall on deaf ears, so if we’re not on the top of his list, we want him to know that he’s on the top of our list.”
Sgt. Christopher Leap, one of two NYPD supervisors shot and wounded by an armed gang member suspected of robbing a Lower East Side mah-jongg parlor will be among the speakers railing against the mayor on Thursday. The city’s sergeants haven’t had a contract in two years because of an ongoing wage disparity affecting more than 1,200 supervisors that began when the city increased the salaries of rank-and-file police officers.
After the city boosted salaries of long-serving cops, the SBA union realized that many sergeants are now earning less than the officers they oversee — a situation that makes no sense, Vallelong said. As contract negotiations drag on, the city’s Office of Labor Relations has asked the union to agree to givebacks to fix a problem they created, he said.
With ongoing discussions bearing no fruit, Vallelong filed a “declaration of impasse” and called in a state mediator to help in October, but still nothing has been agreed to. The impasse comes as the Adams administration repeatedly boasts it has successfully negotiated contracts “with unions representing nearly 97% of the city’s workforce.” Over the past year, the city has negotiated contracts with the Police Benevolent Association, United Federation of Teachers, United Probation Officers Association and Uniformed Sanitation Workers’ Union, to name a few.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Adams said City Hall is “currently going through the mediation process with the Sergeants Benevolent Association and are committed to coming to a fair solution that will continue to protect public safety.
“ Under the expired contract, the base pay for sergeants, who supervise several cops at a time while responding to 911 calls, starts at $98,000 a year and balloons to about $118,000 within five years.
After the newest contract with the PBA, experienced police officers can earn about $115,000, SBA members said. The city put itself in a bind by increasing rank-and-file police officer wages without providing comparable increases to supervisory ranks, Vallelong said.
“Now you have new sergeants making less than top-pay police officers,” the union president said. “The OLR didn’t realize your salary can’t be less than what it was before you get promoted. There’s no other rank on the job this has happened to.”
A city official with knowledge of the contract negotiations said that the SBA has been offered wage increases of 18.5% over a five-year term like other uniform services. By honing in on the wage disparity, the union is “depriving their members of the uniform coalition wage increases,” the official said.
Police officers become sergeants after studying and taking a civil service exam, so a great deal of work and effort goes into becoming a sergeant — something the rank and file may not want to do if they know they can get the same salary as a cop if they work long enough, Vallelong said. The city is spending millions to level the playing field by promoting sergeants to the highest pay level, Vallelong said.
During contract negotiations, the SBA provided several possible fixes, including a more equitable pay scale program, but the city didn’t want to hear any of them, Vallelong said.
“We laid out the perfect plan to fix it and either they didn’t comprehend or they didn’t like the fact we did it for them,” Vallelong said about OLR. “You would think that the mayor being a former cop — and knowing about this injustice — the smart decision is to fix it,” he said.
“That’s what leaders do. They see a problem and then they fix the problem and move on.”
If a contract isn’t negotiated, things will get worse before they get better — by July, 1,100 sergeants will have vested their pensions and would be free to retire, Vallelong said.
There are currently 4,300 sergeants in the NYPD, which has about 36,000 members.
“You don’t think that 70% of them are going to retire?” Vallelong asked, adding that 71 sergeants have already put in their papers this month alone. “That’s going to be a significant hit to the department.”
