In a new class action lawsuit filed on Jan. 26, five City University of New York (CUNY) peace officers allege that the state of New York is failing to pay them at the same salary rate as their counterparts at State University of New York (SUNY) schools.
New York state employs both groups of officers who, other than having different job titles, do the same work, the lawsuit claims. The only difference between the two groups is their racial composition: “The higher-paid group is about 90% white. The lower-paid group is about 90% people of color. This lawsuit challenges that pay discrimination,” the text for the lawsuit states.
Mohamed Alshami, who works as a CUNY Campus Peace Officer at Hunter College, said back in 2022 he started researching the average salaries of university law enforcement offices in New Jersey, Connecticut, and especially New York. He was shocked to see how much more other groups were getting paid. CUNY officers, who are part of Teamsters Local 237, recently reached a tentative labor agreement with the state but even this new contract doesn’t place CUNY officers close to the earnings SUNY officers receive.
“I looked at our collective bargaining agreement and I checked other agencies’ collective bargaining agreements and compared ours with theirs, and I saw a big difference,” Alshami told the Amsterdam News. “With New York SUNY, they get like double our salary and I feel like it’s unfair and we need to do something.”
CUNY peace officers are hired with a starting salary of $36,614, but SUNY police officers can start out earning as much as $82,928 if they work near New York City.
The employment discrimination law firms Valli Kane & Vagnini and Mehri & Skalet, PLLC who are representing Alshami and four other plaintiffs say they’ve determined that most CUNY Officers are people of color. As of 2022, 48.9% of CUNY officers were Black, 24.9% were Latinx, 13.6% were Asian, 11.1 % were white and 1.4% were classified as other. Meanwhile, the statistics on SUNY police officers found that in 2021, 89% were white, 7% were Black, and 4% were Latinx or Asian.
The pay difference between CUNY and SUNY officers is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the officers in their class action suit said.
“This has always been the talk over the years,” commented Derrick Trotman, a peace officer at CUNY’s Brooklyn College. “As officers, we always talk to one another about what’s going on as far as other agencies. Some of us look to go to different agencies, so that’s always a talk amongst us as far as who’s making what type of money and what the requirements are. So, we always knew that they were making more than us.
“Being in law enforcement, you always look at the deal, the pay differences in the departments. It’s always been a talk within the department as far as the pay differences, whether it be corrections, whether it be SUNY, the courts… So, yeah, we always knew that there’s a disparity in pay, although we’re pretty much doing the same job.”
When hired for their jobs, CUNY officers and SUNY police officers are expected to have the same level of educational or experience requirements, the lawsuit contends: “Candidates for CUNY Officer jobs need: ‘[a] High School Diploma/GED from an accredited institution plus two (2) years of full-time work experience OR successful completion of 60 college semester credits with a minimum grade point average of 2.0.’ Equivalently, a SUNY police officer candidate requires ‘60 college credits’ or ‘two years of active military service with an honorable discharge, which may substitute for 30 of the 60 hours of college credit. For both positions, eligible candidates must pass a written test, a physical agility or fitness test, a background investigation, a psychological test, and a medical examination including a drug test.”
The work assignments are similar as well. Trotman noted that when he was working over the weekend, “My campus is closed: A general description of activity at this moment. [I do a] patrol of various buildings making sure essential rooms and offices are locked and secured. We protect people and property, maintaining that agenda while there are no classes. During classes, as the campus is open to students, we will respond to any additional situations and, as mentioned, just maintain a normal working college atmosphere.”
The lawsuit claims that “The title difference––‘police officer’ versus ‘peace officer’––does not signify a material difference in duties. Under New York Criminal Procedure Law Section 2.20, peace officers have broad powers similar to police officers, including to make warrantless arrests, use physical force and deadly physical force in making an arrest or preventing an escape, carry out constitutionally permissible warrantless searches, issue appearance tickets and summonses, and exercise other powers authorized by state or local law or charter.
“While CUNY Officers and SUNY police officers have similar qualification requirements and similar duties, CUNY Officers work in New York City, where the cost of living is higher and the risks to officers’ health and safety are greater than for SUNY police officers who work throughout the State. The State recognizes these disadvantages by paying SUNY police officers who work in or near New York City more than officers who work elsewhere.”
Alshami was the one who mobilized other CUNY officers who wanted to have the CUNY/SUNY pay discrepancies investigated. The other CUNY officers named in the class action suit are Nadeem Mohammad, a public safety sergeant at Hunter College; Derrick Trotman, a peace officer at Brooklyn College; David Irizarry, who works as a peace officer at Baruch College; and Jeffrey Pawell, who is a sergeant at City College.
CUNY peace officers are suing for back pay, salary increases, and other better terms and conditions of employment. “We just want to be treated equally,” Alshami said. “We don’t want to be treated better than other officers of the other agencies. We just want to be treated equally, that’s all we ask.”