Corrections officers working for Milwaukee County, Wisconsin are represented by Local 567 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. A clause in the collective bargaining agreement requires a written authorization from employees before release of personnel records. When a corrections officer received a ten-day suspension after an inmate he was guarding escaped […]
Illinois has a state law that provides continuing health insurance benefits to public safety employees and their dependents if the employee suffers a catastrophic injury or is killed in the line of duty. To be eligible for the benefits, the law enforcement officer or firefighter must be injured while responding “to what is reasonably believed […]
Like many states, Florida's workers' compensation statutes have a “heart presumption” for public safety officers, including law enforcement officers and firefighters. If a condition qualifies for the “heart presumption,” the condition is presumed to be caused by the job. While an employer can rebut the presumption of causation, it is fairly difficult to do so, […]
California's Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill Of Rights Act provides that “no punitive action, nor denial of promotion on grounds other than merit, shall be undertaken by any public agency against any public safety officer…without providing the public safety officer with an opportunity for an administrative appeal.” The California Court of Appeals recently had to […]
The Washington State Patrol Troopers Association and the State of Washington were parties to a collective bargaining agreement that allowed either party to “request negotiations of a successor agreement by notifying the other party in writing no sooner than January 1, 2008.” Notwithstanding this provision, the Association started early on the process of attempting to […]
Most state collective bargaining laws have a relatively quick statute of limitations on the filing of an unfair labor practice. A recent Oregon case dealt with the question of whether the statute of limitations is triggered by an employer's notice that it intends to make a change in working conditions, or rather by the implementation […]
A police officer for the Town of Hooksett, Massachusetts, who was just off of probation, was involved in an off-duty motor vehicle accident. The Town initially placed the officer on unpaid administrative leave and, after an investigation, terminated him. The officer’s labor organization, Local 633 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, challenged both the administrative […]
Calvin Elliott was a deputy sheriff with the Howard County, Maryland Sheriff's Department. When the Department terminated him, Elliott filed a lawsuit contending that he had been discharged without the hearing required by Maryland's statutory Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights. A trial court agreed with Elliott, and ordered Elliott reinstated with back pay. The […]
Ricky Fox and Billy Ray Vice were candidates for the position of Chief of Police in the Town of Vinton, Louisiana. The Town elects its police chiefs, and Vice was the incumbent. While the two were campaigning, two events occurred that eventually led to a federal court lawsuit. The first event happened in January 2005, […]
The New York Police Department randomly tests its members for drugs. For a number of years, the testing was conducted on either the urine or hair of members. In 2005, the Department switched to a methodology for hair testing known as radioimmunoassay, or RIAH. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the Sergeants’ Benevolent Association filed the […]
The District of Columbia and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) are parties to a collective bargaining agreement governing the rank-and-file members of the Metropolitan Police Department. The FOP filed a grievance challenging what it believed to be an inappropriate delay in paying overtime for police officers who worked a detail providing security and escort […]
In 1941, the New Hampshire Municipal Association was formed to provide legal, legislative advocacy, and other services to its members, which are comprised of political subdivisions such as cities and counties. The Association was later renamed the Local Government Center, or LGC. In 2007, the Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire requested a number of documents […]
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is an agency created by agreement between the states of New York and New Jersey to develop transportation facilities in the New York metropolitan area. The Port Authority's 13 facilities are policed by the Port Authority's Public Safety Department. The Department's promotional process requires officers to […]
