Phila. police win two annual 3 pct. raises in arbitration

An independent arbitration panel Thursday awarded Philadelphia police two years of 3 percent raises, adding a costly coda to officers' five-year contract.

The panel issued its original five-year award in 2009 but allowed for the contract to be reopened in its last two years.

As a result of the reopening, police will get a 3 percent raise retroactive to July 1 and an additional 3 percent increase effective July 1, 2013.

The new provisions also will boost salaries an additional 1 percent because "stress pay" - added salary that every officer receives based on the difficulty of police jobs - was raised from 5 percent of salary to 6 percent.

Benefits in the original award remain the same.

In exchange for health and pension benefit concessions in 2009, police received raises of 4 percent in 2010 and 3 percent in 2011, plus the opportunity to reopen the final two years for arbitration.

Thursday's award gives police a five-year salary increase of nearly 15 percent.

"If you look at the whole award, I think it was really cost-effective for the city," said John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5. "They really beat us up in the beginning, so maybe we've evened it out a little."

On his union's website, he called the arbitration decision "a victory for the FOP." McNesby also vowed to continue to push for more in the next contract.

"We here at the FOP are not resting as we are preparing for the contract arbitration battle starting again in 2014," he said.

Mark McDonald, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said the administration received the award Thursday and needed "to review it and its cost and policy implications."

When the contract was awarded in 2009 with raises in the second and third years, the cost to the city over five years was estimated to be more than $100 million.

Nutter recently decided to appeal a pay increase awarded to firefighters. The city's unions for nonuniformed workers have been without a contract since 2009.