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City police officers who switch to the Fire Department would face a pay cut under terms of a new contract deal - a pact that also would lift wages 17.1 percent from 2002 levels.
It is a unique twist in a four-year, one-month agreement for firefighters, retroactive to June 1, 2002, that if ratified is expected to cost the city an additional $168 million per year.
Since 2002, more than 350 city cops have changed uniforms to become firefighters, officials say. Generally they've kept the same wages as they entered the new agency.
James Hanley, the city's labor commissioner, said that under the new deal such uniform changers "for salary purposes ... start out as new employees."
The same change would affect correction officers who become firefighters. NYPD and Correction Department seniority would still count toward pensions under the deal, which requires state legislative approval.
As in recent deals with other uniformed unions, starting pay for FDNY rookies will be slashed - to $25,100 from the current $32,700.
But maximum pay, without overtime or differentials, will rise from $54,200 to $63,609.
If ratified, the new agreement will immediately put more than $15,000 worth of back pay in the pockets of Uniformed Firefighters Association members, Hanley said.
The union represents 8,700 FDNY employees.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg now faces Election Day a week from Tuesday having settled a new round of different agreements with most major municipal unions.
His Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, knocked the Bloomberg deal for slashing starting pay "to less than his paid canvassers make," and said the mayor "rammed through agreements" with political timing.
But, standing beside firefighters union president Stephen J. Cassidy - with whom he's clashed bitterly in the past - Bloomberg called the contracts "fiscally prudent settlements" that hike pay while aiding productivity.
The compounded wage increases that add up to 17.1 percent are: 5 percent effective June 1, 2002; 5 percent effective June 1, 2003; 3 percent effective Aug. 1, 2004; and 3.15 percent effective Aug. 1, 2005.
Cassidy stressed that the city also agreed to expand the number of five-person fire trucks from 60 to 64 through January 2011, a staffing deal that the union has pressed for years. Other trucks in the city's 200-plus fire companies can carry four people.
The city also increases its contributions to union welfare funds, boosts the uniform cleaning allowance by $100 per year and improves annuity payments.
"Timing is everything. When a window opens up, you've got to jump in and get your deal done. We've been working on this a long time. It didn't just happen today," Cassidy told reporters.
What the pact would mean
Starting pay for FDNY rookies would go from $32,700 to $25,100.
Maximum pay would rise from $54,200 before overtime and differentials to $63,609.
The agreement would grant Uniformed Firefighters Association members more than $15,000 in back pay.
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