NIFA gives OK to Nassau restoring employee longevity pay

Nassau County can award employees $100 million in past and future "longevity pay" after a state control board approved a new labor agreement Tuesday and put an end to a yearslong dispute.

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority approved the deal to restore longevity pay by a vote of 6-0 Tuesday night.

"Longevity" pay is incorporated into an employee's salary after they have worked for the county for a certain number of years. The payments have remained the same since 2011, when NIFA implemented a wage freeze. 

In April, the Nassau Legislature approved a deal that County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, struck with the unions several weeks earlier.

The unions are the Civil Service Employees Association, Police Benevolent Association, Superior Officers Association, Correction Officers Benevolent Association and Detectives Association Inc.

NIFA chairman Adam Barsky told Newsday in an interview that settling the matter was inevitable.

"It was subject to arbitration," he said before the vote. "There’s always the risk arbitration could yield different results.”

He added, "it was always understood that the longevity that went away would have to be subject to collective bargaining negotiations when there were new agreements with the unions. This is the result of that negotiation.”

County union leaders said their employees were shortchanged by thousands of dollars each.

The county did not restore longevity pay when NIFA lifted the freeze in 2014.

But in September 2017, outgoing Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker signed a "memorandum of agreement" restoring millions of dollars in longevity pay.

The county attorney at the time, Carnell Foskey, objected, writing in a letter that Walker's agreements "exceed the ordinary terms and usual substance" of such deals. His agreements lacked needed approvals from NIFA and the county legislature, Foskey wrote.

Both Foskey and Walker were top appointees of then-County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican.

Mangano's successor, Democratic County Executive Laura Curran, sued the county's five unions in March 2018 in a bid to invalidate the Walker memo.

The Curran administration argued Walker's memo was not legally binding.

Then-state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Adams ruled that it was "a valid and enforceable agreement." He said the county should settle the matter with the unions in arbitration.

Adams, a Republican, retired from the court and is now Blakeman's county attorney.

Blakeman, in a statement, told Newsday after the vote: "The deal approved by NIFA, I believe fairly compensates our county workforce while protecting the financial stability of our county. After years of inaction by the previous administration, I am committed to solving problems and delivering results."

Funding for the $100 million would come from a special revenue fund, comprised of excess sales tax collections, and the county's 2021 surplus.

Barsky said NIFA was agreeing to the deal because members of the Blakeman administration assured him of steps they would take in negotiating new contracts with the Civil Services Employees Association, Police Benevolent Association, and Correction Officers Benevolent Association.

Barsky said he was confident that Blakeman will follow the collective bargaining pattern Curran and NIFA used in recent years to strike new agreements with the Superior Officers Association and Detective Association

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler covers Nassau County government and politics for Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.