Hundreds of Chicago firefighters and paramedics are still waiting for four years’ worth of retroactive pay raises after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration fumbled the ball in distributing the checks.
Pat Cleary, president of the Chicago firefighters union, said the city’s failure to deliver back pay checks by the Dec. 30 deadline means the city must pay 4.5% annual interest on payments as high as $35,000.
The problem started when the city waited until mid-January — at least two weeks after the deadline — “to start cutting checks for anybody,” Cleary said. When checks were finally in the mail, the Johnson administration “realized that they screwed up and didn’t take out pension deductions.”
“Some of these people had 20 or 30 grand deposited into deferred [compensation] to get the tax savings and then they had it removed because the city screwed up the pension deductions. The city took that money back,” Cleary told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Other people had checks mailed to homes that they no longer live in. And the city is saying, `We’re not gonna cut another check until we get that first check back.’ Well, our members don’t live there. How can you get that check back? We don’t know where it is.”
A letter attached to the firefighters contract states that retroactive paychecks delivered after the Dec. 30 deadline must include interest at an annual rate of 4.5%.
“They’re saying they don’t owe us that interest. They’re not acknowledging a letter in our contract that states if you don’t pay us within 75 days, you owe us 4.5%-per-annum. They’re saying they don’t owe us that,” Cleary said. “You do. It’s in the contract. We filed a grievance, and we’re gonna take them to arbitration. We’re gonna win that. It’s a no-brainer.”
City Comptroller Michael Belsky said in a statement that he is “aware of the issue” involving retro pay and has been “working with the union to resolve it.” He refused to elaborate, citing the union grievance and potential litigation that could come from it.
Cleary said there is no excuse for forcing firefighters and paramedics who waited four years for a new contract and the pay raises that were supposed to come with it to wait even longer for the lump-sum payments they are owed.
“It just shows the incompetence of the city. How do you forget to take out pension deductions? How is that possible? We went without a contract for four years,” he said. “This should have been ready to go right when we ratified the contract. All they should have done was press the button and say, ‘Let’s go.'”
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), whose far Southwest Side ward is home to scores of firefighters and paramedics, called the payroll snafu “yet another example of the calamity that is this administration. They knew they had an agreement … months ago. They dragged this out. They didn’t communicate. When they finally cut the checks, how many mistakes were made, whether it’s an incorrect address or not taking proper dollars out.”
Ald. Nick Sposato (38th), a former Chicago firefighter, called the payroll snafu “disappointing” and “kind of sad.”
The Johnson administration was already under fire for borrowing $186 million to cover the retroactive paychecks after the City Council was told repeatedly that the money to resolve the firefighters contract was set aside in every one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s three budgets.
“That’s why it’s very disappointing. Because you knew this was coming. You weren’t ambushed or anything. So you had to be prepared,” Sposato said. “Even if one person really needed the money — or they were putting it all in deferred [compensation], and now they can’t because it came in a different year — there’s a whole boatload of problems that could result from this.”
Cleary has characterized the six-year contract as a “status quo” agreement because it includes none of the union concessions that Johnson and his two predecessors talked about, but never pursued.
The contract includes pay raises of up to 20%, depending on the rate of inflation, and a $2,500 cash bonus to match the increases awarded to rank-and-file police officers.
On the day the City Council unanimously approved the agreement, Cleary argued that the three-year loan made it clear that Johnson slow-walked negotiations on a new firefighters contract to avoid paying the $186 million in back pay and to “spend that money elsewhere.”