City’s contract offer is unfair to career probation officers

Since our last contract expired in November 2020, New York City probation officers, members of the United Probation Officers Association, have undergone major changes. Work schedules for supervising probation officers, who make up the majority of officers, have been changed from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday, with one night until 7 p.m. We now work Tuesdays through Saturdays or Sundays through Thursdays, two of those days until 10 p.m.  

We were given nothing to compensate for this major change. About half of our officers have left the Probation Department because of these tour changes, and the low wages, high responsibilities and poor working conditions. 

Our caseloads have also skyrocketed. We are now mandated to wear uniform shirts and the Probation Department’s commissioner, Juanita Holmes, will soon mandate a full uniform, including a dress uniform, mirroring the NYPD. 

We are not uniformed services, and we are not deemed law enforcement. We are not deemed to be in a physically taxing job and most of us cannot retire until we are 62 years old. We are expected to perform home visits and work with no accommodations until then. Probation officers in other jurisdictions statewide can retire after 25 years, but we cannot.

The tentative contract announced by the Adams administration and union leadership last week does not address our work tours, and it will be left to the commissioner and the union’s president, Dalvanie Powell, to negotiate under the table.  

The new contract gives us a uniform maintenance payment, claiming the department will purchase uniforms for us all. Further details are to be worked out again, outside of the contract. Under the table negotiations are not acceptable, nor are they binding. We demand that our work hours and uniform requirements are clearly outlined in our contract. 

All probation officers and supervising probation officers would receive a signing bonus and lump sum retroactive payments, according to the tentative agreement. But our top salary would remain well below those of probation officers in nearby counties. In  Nassau, for instance, probation officers reach over $100,000 after two years. According to the proposed contract, NYC probation officers would reach a maximum salary of $81,000 after 11 years, which is entirely unfair. This top salary has not been raised in the proposed contract, only steps to get there were established.  To take 11 years to reach a top salary of a $20,000 increase is unfair. 

Both Powell and Mayor Eric Adams framed the contract as an effort to hire more staff and retain those working now. This will not be the case as most other NYC agencies offer more competitive salaries to start and a significantly higher top salary. NYPD officers reach $125,000 after five years, while NYC correction officers make $101,000 but do not have the four-year college degree required of probation officers. 

This contract is not a fair deal. It doesn’t provide a living wage to hard-working officers. We are overworked and underpaid. We were recently told that we would be supervising inmates released from Rikers Island, which will only increase our workload. 

How we can take on that responsibility effectively is something for the mayor to think about. We deserve better. We save the city millions of dollars as probation is an alternative to incarceration. 

So why not pay us a wage reflective of our value?