New contract offers increase in hours and salary.
By: Josh Appelbaum
The Township Committee ratified a new four-year contract with the Cranbury police union Monday that increases the number of hours in each shift and provides 4 percent salary increases for 2004, 2006 and 2007 with a 7 percent increase for 2005.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 68 has been in negotiations with the township since the previous contract expired Dec. 31, 2003. All increases for 2004 salaries, longevity, uniform allotments, overtime and reimbursements will be paid retroactively to police in a lump sum.
Starting Jan. 1, police will work 12-hour days, an increase from nine and a half hours a day, with two shifts per day, the first starting at 6:30 a.m., the second at 6:30 p.m. The longer work days will see each officer working less total days 173 down from 260, according to the contract.
In addition, officers cannot exceed 18 hours in a 24-hour period and schedules will have them working two days on and two days off, three days on, two days off and two days on, three days off over a two-week period, according to the contract.
Under the new contract, new hires’ salaries are increased to $34,927, up from around $30,000, and pay will top out after 12 years at $71,840. Sergeant, lieutenant and captain salaries will see the same staggered increases.
Overtime rates remain unchanged at one and a half times the normal hourly base-pay rate.
Officers retiring with a disability that have 22 years on the Cranbury force or 25 years in the state are eligible to receive health coverage for themselves and their spouses, according to the contract. Police are given 30 hours of personal leave time per year and a $750 bonus each year will be paid to officers with perfect attendance.
The previous two-year contract provided for a 3.5 percent raise in salaries in 2002 and a 4 percent raise for 2003, in addition to changes in salaries, work hours, uniform allowance, sick days, longevity pay and other expenditures.

