Ending a protracted labor dispute, an arbitration panel on Monday awarded New York City?s roughly 23,000 police officers a retroactive 9.7 percent raise over two years and significantly increased the low starting pay for recruits by $10,781. The panel?s decision was unusual in that it broke with tradition by giving the police officers a larger percentage raise than the one the city?s firefighters received over the same two-year period. In exchange, the panel exacted significant concessions from the officers? union, the Patrolmen?s Benevolent Association, reducing annual vacation to 10 days a year from 20 during officers? first five years on the job. The panel voted 2 to 1 in favor of the decision, with the police union?s representative on the panel the lone dissenter;.
See "Arbitration Panel Gives Raise to City Police Officers", Al Baker and Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, May 19, 2008