The union representing the city of Englewood police officers — the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (OPBA) — rejected the recommendations of the fact-finder, the report states, and the issue will now go through a conciliation process, a version of binding arbitration, according to Michael Allen, general counsel for SERB.
“A conciliator has been assigned to the case and will hear the parties’ positions, according to the laws and regulations, and will then decide the contested issues,” Allen said, adding that the conciliator’s decisions will serve as the final say.
A conciliation hearing will be held later this month, Allen said.
City of Englewood officials had not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Dayton Daily News as of Thursday afternoon. A representative of the OPBA declined to comment on the matter.
During the initial fact-finding hearing in April, the issue of vacation leave was resolved, but the city and the OPBA were unable to come to an agreement on the issues of wages and sick leave, the report states.
The OPBA proposed an annual base wage increase of 3.5% for a three-year contract, with the city proposing an annual increase of 2.5% over the same three-year period.
The OPBA cited inflation, rising health care costs, and comparisons between patrol officers’ wage increases in recent years and the wage increases for other city of Englewood first responders as reasons for its request. City representatives claim that patrol officers’ pay is “consistently in the top quartile of comparable communities.”
The fact-finder recommended a 3.0% wage increase for patrol officers in the first year of a new contract, with 2.5% annual increases in Years 2 and 3.
On the issue of sick leave, the two parties have bargained over a 40-hour expansion of sick leave “for an immediate family member or parent’s illness or injury,” but an agreement has not been reached regarding whether this expansion would also apply to immediate family member or parent’s exposure to a contagious disease, according to the report.
Additionally, the OPBA has proposed to allow officers to use up to 40 hours of sick leave per year for the birth or adoption of a child, or 240 hours of sick leave for any FMLA-qualifying condition of a spouse, child, step-child, or parent. According to the report, the city has not agreed to this proposal.
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