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Arbitrator Rules Public School Teachers Get Half Of Delayed Backpay By End Of October
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David Cruz
Published Oct 10, 2020
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By
David Cruz
Published Oct 10, 2020
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New York’s public school teachers will be receiving the last installment of retroactive backpay they were promised ten years ago by the city, which sought to delay payments this month until an arbitrator stepped in on Friday.
But the payment -- which was supposed to be paid in full on October 15th -- will be split in two installments, with the first half coming on October 31st and the other in July of 2021 after the new Fiscal Year begins.
The revised five-year deal was hammered out after the city told the United Federation of Teachers union that it would be unable to dole out the final tranche of backpay owed to teachers. The backpay deal was finalized in 2014, several years after teachers did not receive a pay bump that was given to other public employees during the 2009 and 2010 fiscal crisis under the administration of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan wrote a letter to UFT president Michael Mulgrew on Thursday, a week from the time the money was to have been distributed, explaining that the current fiscal crisis fueled by the pandemic made it impossible to make the last payments that totaled $900 million.
On Friday Mulgrew went to an arbitrator, an agreed-upon right the union is allowed to exercise, according to its 2014 agreement with the city. The arbitrator, Martin Scheinman, spent four hours with the two sides, laying out other stipulations that included a no-layoff provision through June 2021, a threat Mayor Bill de Blasio had dangled over the union if they had won arbitration. Teachers will also receive a 3.5% pay increase by May next year.
“This is far from a perfect solution for thousands of our members who are still owed deferred wages that can go back as far as ten years," Mulgrew said in a statement. "The decision recognizes the city’s difficult financial circumstances because of the coronavirus pandemic, but makes it clear that the city must find a way to meet its financial obligations to its educators.”
Mulgrew was wary that the city's ongoing explanation that the fiscal crisis is reason to delay payments can be the standard excuse for not providing increased payments to teachers.
"If the city feels they can claim financial hardship whenever they need to meet an obligation then what's to stop them from saying our raise in next May cannot meet that obligation," said Mulgrew in a video posted to YouTube. "So for now on agreements mean nothing?"
But de Blasio looked upon the agreement as a win given the $450 million in savings this year for the city.
“The City faces the gravest fiscal crisis since 9/11, but we will build on our record of strong financial management by making the tough decisions and sacrifices we need to keep the City running,” said de Blasio in a statement. “This agreement allows us to avoid laying off the teachers who’ve done so much for New York City’s schools and students. But make no mistake, the need for the Federal and State governments to step up and provide us with aid is as pressing as ever.”
Alexis Neider, a teacher in Manhattan, didn't quite call this a win, but a compromise to a saga that's dragged out for years. She took the news with cautious optimism.
"When I read it, yesterday, I had a glass of wine. I was like, 'I'm gonna celebrate this because this has made me crazy all day.' And I felt like I want to quit my job. And I'm gonna count this as a plus; it's not perfect," Neider told Gothamist.
For Neider, the timing of the city's drawback came at a time when teachers have been asked to return to school for in-person learning, where they don't feel completely safe.
"We're making giant sacrifices in our personal lives, and now in our pockets and bank accounts to keep the city running," said Neider. "And this money should be coming from other places, aka the NYPD, the entire country and city has been saying that all summer. And also to not tax the wealthy in this incredible moment, and then literally take cash from like teachers who are not paid extremely well, given the work that we're doing. I think that's disgusting."
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schools
Michael Mulgrew
David Cruz
David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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