Dallas Police and Firefighters Sue City for Violating Meet and Confer Agreement
For the past two years, the Dallas Police and Firefighters have been working tirelessly on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been exposed and often succumbed to a deadly virus while many city leaders have had the luxury of working virtually from home. During this time, Police and Firefighters have also been under a three year Meet and Confer Agreement that promised yearly market-based pay adjustments.
In 2019, after months of negotiations, the City of Dallas and Dallas Police Officers and Firefighters ratified and signed a three year Meet and Confer agreement. All parties involved agreed to an entirely different pay philosophy that would enable the City to always have a competitive and attractive pay schedule enabling both departments to recruit and retain employees. This new pay philosophy includes market-based pay adjustments that would be implemented for all members at the beginning of each subsequent fiscal year as the market pay rate either increased or decreased amongst comparator cities.
Throughout the negotiations concessions were made by Dallas Police Officers and Firefighters. The first year of the agreement was structured to save the City of Dallas millions of dollars and explicitly differently than the second and third year. Year two of the agreement saw the City refuse to honor the agreement as they did not implement the market-based salary adjustments.
Finally in year three, City Management recommended, and City Council approved, the implementation of the market-based pay adjustments. Regrettably, the City is now delaying these pay adjustments, in clear breach of the agreement. Forcing all public servants to wait for their anniversary date, as opposed to at the beginning of the fiscal year, as the agreement clearly states.
The Meet and Confer Team, consisting of the Dallas Fire Fighters Association, Dallas Black Fire Fighters Association, Dallas Hispanic Fire Fighters Association, Dallas Police Association, Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, and the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization joined together to bring suit against the City in the 116th District Court of Texas demanding that the City immediately implement the market-based increases, retroactive to October 1, 2021.
Our first responders are working tirelessly on the frontlines in the City of Dallas while City management finds ways to continually delay the agreed upon adjustments. It is shameful that the City is forcing the Dallas Police and Firefighters to spend their hard-earned money to take the City to court, just to enforce their written promises. Your police officers and firefighters have made every attempt to reach informal resolution to this matter, including going to arbitration. The City has made no reasonable attempts at resolution
