LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Three police unions are asking for answers after claiming employees haven't been given retention payments, which were negotiated into their contracts last fiscal year, and at least one has filed a grievance against the State of Nevada.
Nearly 2,400 state employees with the Nevada Police Union, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Nevada Peace Officers Association said they have not received their retention bonuses.
"The response that I got was that the additional retention payments in the contract were not funded by the legislature," said Paul Lunkwitz, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Lunkwitz said last week, employees were notified on their pay stubs that money the state promised wasn't going to be part of Friday's paycheck as anticipated.
"This is particularly troublesome since the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] or the Board of Examiners that is made up of the Governor, Secretary of State and the Attorney General vote on all the contracts and they voted to approve our contract," Lunkwitz said. "The specific note that was contained in that agenda was that the $2,000 retention payments were part of the Governor's recommended budget."
At issue are two retention bonuses. The first was $1,000 bonus for all state employees, which was paid. The other, a $2,000 bonus designed specifically to reward new recruits. However, that money never came.
Lunkwitz said the Fraternal Order of Police has filed a grievance against the state while other groups said they're waiting for now.
"We have not filed the grievance yet. We are waiting to hear back from the state and the governor's office to see. Like I said, they needed to do some research and they needed to look into some things and so we're kind of waiting to see what they are coming up with," said Dan Gordon, the president of the Nevada Police Union. "And again, I'm very hopeful that they're just like oops and we got to get this taken care of as soon as possible."
Gordon said he hopes the issue could be resolved by then but they could look at filing grievances against the state next week. He said losing bonuses is especially hard due to inflation and that recruitment and retention are at all-time lows for all law enforcement agencies.
"When it's it's in the contract, when it is passes through legislation or our contract was passed to the board of examiners. Yeah. You should be able to count all that stuff," Gordon said. "Times are tough and the cost of everything is skyrocketing. And so, that money definitely helps offset some of those increasing costs so it is a big deal. It's a very big deal."
The three law enforcement unions represent Nevada State Police, Probation and Parole, Capitol Police, Fire Marshalls, and many more.
I reached out to the Governor's Office for comment about the retention bonuses. It is a holiday weekend so I have not heard back but we will be following this story to see if there is a resolution.
