OSA Newsline - July 21, 2003 We were planning on a two-week period between Newslines, but something came up. Leap year, actually. A number of members are calling to report that their salaries have mysteriously dropped just a little bit and quite recently. Yes, all of our salaries have dropped slightly but it is not mysterious nor even novel. All of us are paid an annual salary. Our biweekly gross comes from taking our annual salary, dividing by 365 and multiplying by 14. Unless, of course, it is leap year. During the City's fiscal leap year July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004, the formula changes. Now payroll divides our annual salary by 366 and multiplies by 14. The result is obviously a bit less pay per day (1/365th less), but the annual salary does not change. The good news, of course, is that the process will reverse itself as of July 1st of next year. Other good news is that the City finally gave us tentative numbers for the 1% for our Traffic and School Safety Units, as well as an offer on the uniform allowance. Negotiations are proceeding.

OSA Newsline - July 14, 2003 July 14th is Bastille Day in France. The OSA Welfare Fund trustees met last week and implemented a number of improvements in our fund. Most of the changes were minor. The trustees are increasing the length of free health care coverage for family survivors after a member's death from one to two years. Going in the other direction in terms of time, members in need of a hearing aid used to be allowed up to $1500 every there years, but now it will be every two years instead. One major change is the increase, as of July 1st, of the dental maximum from $2,500 per year to $3,000 per year. This is the first such change in thirteen years. A full report on all the changes will be going out in the mail this month. Police Department negotiations are set for this week and negotiations in general are continuing. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services has scheduled a Staff Analyst exam for next Spring and the union will be contacting Personnel in advance to learn details. The City is currently recruiting new provisional employees to our ranks by use of flyers that members keep sending us. The City is also hiring summer interns in some agencies. Hiring new employees and summer interns is a unique occurrence so close upon the laying off of thousands of workers. It seems to prove fairly clearly that the need for the layoffs is not and never was economic on this occasion. It also seems awfully, awfully unfair.