Nassau cops' $ick-payday By CHUCK BENNETT and LEN MANIACE
Last Updated: 3:04 AM, February 7, 2011
Posted: 3:03 AM, February 7, 2011
Comments: 19 More Print EXCLUSIVE Maybe they were sick of fighting crime.
Retiring cops in cash-strapped Nassau County pocketed nearly $16 million by cashing in their unused sick days on top of other "incentives," data obtained by The Post show.
The retiring cops -- who were already part of one of the best-paid forces in the nation -- cashed in an average of $135,000 in "banked" sick days, according to a draft report by Nassau Comptroller George Maragos.
"You can't blame people for taking money they are given -- you would do it," said Maragos.
Robert Turk, the former chief of patrol, collected the most among cops reviewed, pocketing an amazing $876,078 in his final year in salary and retirement incentives, including banked sick days.
"These are all in the contract that they put in place -- nothing more or nothing less," Turk said outside his Long Island home.
Likewise, his former co-worker Robert McGuigan, who took $865,555 last year in salary and incentives when he retired as first deputy commissioner, said he wasn't being greedy. "Those were the rules that were in effect since 1973, when I started," he said. "When I started, I was making $10,000 a year."
Their taxpayer-funded windfalls were enabled by embattled County Executive Ed Mangano, who last year lifted the retirement "incentive" caps to induce higher-paid employees to retire.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
IMO, sick pay, that is negotiated as "paid if not used" should be paid out after a max of 20 or 30 days sick pay are accumulated.
Often paying for sick days that are not used will prevent paying a higher rate in overtime to replace that officer. Waiting until the policeman is retired will pay the highest rate he has ever attained instead of paying them earlier at a lower rate.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
IMO, sick pay, that is negotiated as "paid if not used" should be paid out after a max of 20 or 30 days sick pay are accumulated.
Often paying for sick days that are not used will prevent paying a higher rate in overtime to replace that officer. Waiting until the policeman is retired will pay the highest rate he has ever attained instead of paying them earlier at a lower rate.
Perhaps if they pay at the rate on the day that the sick leave was earned. If I earn a sick day today making $10 an hour and then leave 20 years from now and still have that day (plus others), why should that day get paid at the $20 I may be making 20 years later.
But private sector, say, might get 5 days a year, and does a "use it or lose it" so many people will call in sick just because they have the time. We have many friends who do this, add the day on at the beginning or end of vacation, snow days become sick days, hot summer days become sick days and so forth. There's no incentive to save sick leave for when one is sick. And unfortunatley I don't think it would be possible for any employer to demand a doctors note for every day an employee calls in sick. Sometimes you are truly home with a 24 hr thing, and you can't get into see the doctor that day.
What is needed whether public sector or private sector, union or not, to watch for patterns of usage.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
But private sector, say, might get 5 days a year, and does a "use it or lose it" so many people will call in sick just because they have the time. We have many friends who do this, add the day on at the beginning or end of vacation, snow days become sick days, hot summer days become sick days and so forth. There's no incentive to save sick leave for when one is sick. What is needed whether public sector or private sector, union or not, to watch for patterns of usage.
The "use it or lose it" is to plan annual budgets. If you are operating a company of say 100 employees and you allowed them to accumulate unscheduled sick time, it is virtually impossible to project the amount of labor you will need year to year. Since every year you would have employees with varying available sick time. If you have 20 or 30 employees with 40 or 50 sick days available in any given calendar year, you would have to over staff to cover for any productivity drop off if these employees chose to use all of their sick time in one year. I often wondered how the state budgets year to year with the accumulated sick time policy. Then I remembered, it's the State, counter productivity is the business plan objective.
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