Police officers have accused a New Jersey city of withholding their pay after the city promised to reward frontline workers for their efforts during the pandemic.
City officials in Plainfield, New Jersey, promised to give hazard pay to all frontline workers who served the city during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but four years later, the city’s law enforcement officials say they haven’t received the checks.
A group of retired police officers allege that Plainfield withheld the pay as the city underwent labor contract negotiations with the area’s Policemen’s Benevolent Association union.
“The people who actually went out and got COVID were the cops,” Kevin O’Brien, a former police captain, told NJ.com. “These secretaries, these people are getting five grand. Why wouldn’t you give it to the cops?”
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Newsweek contacted Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp for comment.
In a previous statement to NJ.com, city spokesperson Jazz Clayton-Hunt confirmed that the hazard pay had not been sent, as the city continued to undergo contract negotiations.
“Hazard pay has been addressed during the contract negotiations with every other unit,” Clayton-Hunt said. “The PBA, however, remains in ongoing contract negotiations after declining a very generous offer from the city. As a result, the issue of hazard pay continues to be a subject of these discussions.”
Mapp originally approved the hazard pay in June 2021, NJ.com reported, as the city looked to support its most vulnerable during the pandemic. This included frontline workers, renters struggling to make ends meet and small-business owners who saw their profits dashed by the virus.
O’Brien said records showed that several hundred employees had already received the hazard pay, with some receiving the checks as early as August 2021.
Those working in Plainfield’s utilities department received $2,000, while firefighters earned $3,400 for their work during the pandemic. Some employees at the top of the city’s administration saw as much as $5,000, including Lisa Burgess, the former police director, NJ.com reported.
However, to the police officers, about 100 work for the city, no such payment has been made.
The police union’s demands are estimated to cost between $15 million and $20 million in taxes, Clayton-Hunt said previously.
The officers waiting for their hazard pay, however, say the money should be distributed without regard to the ongoing labor disputes.
“They don’t want to part with the money, and they think they can keep it,” Brian Schiller, an attorney for the retired police officers, told NJ.com. “They think they can use these union negotiations to pay less than they committed to.”
Schiller said the mayor was explicit in his purpose for the funds as a thank-you to frontline workers, including the police officers working for the city.
“What’s crazy to me is that the mayor couldn’t have been more specific about what these funds are going to be used for,” Schiller said.
City Council President Steve Hockaday said the police officers would likely be paid down the line, but the ongoing labor negotiations were delaying the checks from being dispensed.
“I want the officers to feel valued. I want them to feel supported by the council and the community,” Hockaday said. “My view is that it is in our best interest to make them as whole as they can, but then again, we have a balancing interest that we take care of the coffers that our residents entrusted with us.”
Plainfield received a chunk of federal funding from Congress’ $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, NJ.com reported.
“It’s a back-and-forth scenario of a city taking one stance and a police union taking another,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.
“The cops who were uncompensated are claiming they never received hazard pay that was earmarked for city workers during and post-pandemic, and records along with undistributed city funds back them up. At the same point, the city’s mayor office is hitting back on these claims and blames lingering issues with the police union as the reason these checks never went out,” he added.
Because the funding was set aside for hazard pay purposes, Beene said, it should end up at the police officers’ doors, but it might continue to be delayed.
“I think there has to be a resolution in the favor of the officers,” Beene said. “At the end of the day, the funding is there and earmarked for this reason. It’s not about the money being distributed, but rather how quickly a deal can be reached to get these officers paid.”
