The collective bargaining agreement between the Rockville Centre Police Benevolent Association and the Village of Rockville Centre, New York calls for 12-hour shifts, with a minimum of 72 hours off between scheduled workdays.
When a sergeant and an officer had their normal night shifts changed to day shifts so they could participate in mandatory firearms training, the Association filed a grievance contending that the schedule change violated the contract. An arbitrator agreed, and upheld the grievance.
The Arbitrator rejected the City’s argument that the schedule change was permissible because the overall number of work hours and days off remain the same over the course of a week. In the Arbitrator’s eyes, the agreement clearly provided for a minimum period of time off between cycles, and the schedule change to deal with the firearms training impinged upon that time off.
Village of Rockville Centre, New York, LAIG 6489 (Light, 2006).
This article appears in the July 2007 issue