By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A new NYPD directive will ban cops from working on vacation days, denying them from simultaneously collecting vacation pay and straight pay, the New York Post reported.
The rule will be put into effect by the NYPD's Office of Management Analysis and Planning on Jan. 1. The city expects the policy change to save $4.1 million, the paper wrote.
Cops are unhappy about the cost cutting move and view it effectively as a reduction in salary.
"The sentiment among my membership is disappointment to say the least," Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives Endowment Association, told the Post.
"We're trying to determine if we have any legal, contractual recourse to challenge this."
Since the mid-1970s, NYPD officers have been permitted to work during one week of their vacation time each year, and many choose to take such "working" vacations during the holiday season. The result was beneficial to both cops, who would make extra money, and the NYPD, which would be adequately staffed during the busy final weeks of the year when crime usually increases.
The measure comes as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's effort to close the city’s budget gap, which is causing cost cutting amongst all city agencies.
But PBA president Patrick Lynch told the Post that the ban on "working" vacations does not make fiscal sense.
"At a time when the NYPD is being cut by another 1,100 police officers, the city is eliminating a program ... that provides police protection to the city in a cost effective manner," he told the Post.
"The results will be that the city will have to staff these positions on overtime. ... It seems foolish to eliminate a common sense program."
