When Council Member Leroy Comrie attended a meeting of school safety agents one Saturday last September, he promised he would do everything he could to focus the City Council’s attention on the inequities peace officers face on the job.

On April 28, Local 237 Citywide Director and Trustee Gregory Floyd testified at a Council hearing in support of legislation sponsored by Council Member Comrie that would grant the same collective bargaining privileges currently enjoyed by New York City police officers and other uniformed services to hundreds of peace officers, including school safety agents.

The legislation states that “individuals working under the terms and conditions of employment similar to those employees working in the city’s uniformed services should be accorded the same unique bargaining rights as those accorded to individuals working in such services.”

This means that if the bill becomes law, Local 237 would be able to bargain separately for peace officer titles in the same way that unions for the police and other uniformed services currently do on “all matters, including but not limited to pensions, overtime and time and leave rules.”

The legislation would affect all peace officer titles except peace officers who work for the Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) and City University of New York (CUNY) since The New York City Council does not have jurisdiction over HHC and CUNY.

“Intro 292 merely corrects a glitch in the Administrative Code,” Council Member Comrie said, adding, “This legislation does not dictate contractual terms. It is merely seeking the same representation awarded to other uniformed officers that provide similar services in hazardous situations.

“The individuals represented by Intro. 292 routinely provide services to our great city at the risk of serious injury. During the Blackout and post 9/11, these individuals rose to the occasion and provided the necessary emergency response where needed. We hope that the city will acknowledge this technicality and work with the Council to correct it. This is long overdue.”

Floyd told the members of the Council’s Committee on Civil Services and Labor that the legislation, Int. 292, “corrects the injustice in our current bargaining structure.” He asserted that peace officer titles represented by Local 237 “function in a bona fide law enforcement capacity,” because “they are empowered to make arrests, to interrogate suspects and issue summonses. They transport prisoners, assist in their booking and will testify at their trials. They may confiscate property. Some patrol large facilities and are called on to eject loiterers and disorderly persons. Wearing a uniform and badge, they personify the rule of law.”

He added: “The law enforcement functions and risks common to these titles our union represents clearly distinguish them from the civilian employees they are now grouped with in collective bargaining. Int. 292 recognizes these distinctions and further recognizes that grouping the officers with civilian employees blocks attention to their special concerns.”

Local 237 President Carl Haynes said the union intends to seek similar collective bargaining rights for hospital police and campus peace officers at the state level as soon as possible.