
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A battle is brewing in Bergen County over law enforcement salaries, with a police union claiming that its contract was violated when a controversial plan to combine the Sheriff’s Office and County Police was enacted.
The gambit, if successful, could lead to higher raises and back pay for its members.
At stake is a chunk of the $3 million that County Executive James Tedesco says has been saved thus far by folding the county force into the Sheriff’s Office last year.
At issue is a clause in the current agreement between PBA Local 49 and the county — a so-called “poison pill” — which calls for the contract to revert to earlier terms if the county police are merged into the Sheriff’s Office.
In recent weeks the union, which represents the former County Police, filed three grievances that were released following an Open Public Records request: one of them saying officers had been merged and earlier salary provisions should be activated.
The county says the grievance is without merit, maintaining that there has been a “realignment” of services. The former Bergen County Police Department now operates as the Bureau of Police Services under the Sheriff’s Office. Tedesco noted in a statement that the department remains “a distinct operating unit, which now reports to the Bergen County sheriff rather than the county executive.”
https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/2.4225/law-enforcement-pay-at-issue-1.1524080