National City Police Officers' Ass'n v. City of National City
Opinion
Opinion
Benke, J.
Summary
Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between plaintiff National City Police Officers’ Association (the association) and defendant City of National City (the city), each year police officers are permitted to sell back up to 40 hours of unused vacation time. Separate provisions of the MOU require that in addition to their hourly base pay officers receive incentive pay or differential pay when they are engaged in certain activities, have certain skills or have extended of years of service with the city. Under the terms of the MOU these incentives and differentials are payable on a monthly basis. In practice the incentives and differentials are calculated on a biweekly basis for any pay period in which they qualify for the particular pay incentive or differential.
In buying back vacation hours from police officers, the city pays officers only their base hourly pay. The city does not add to the vacation pay any incentive or differential pay to which officers might otherwise be entitled at the time of the buy-back. The association objected to this practice and filed a grievance under terms of the MOU.