By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Council finalized a contract for the senior police officers of the township, but the majority of the men and women on the police staff are still working without a new deal.
The senior police officers’ contracts were ratified in June. They will run through 2013, township representatives said.
However the majority of police officers in the township have been working without contracts since the beginning of 2010.
Currently the township and the remaining police officers are embroiled in a state-led arbitration process to determine a new set of contracts.
Chief of Staff Dan Keashen said the first arbitration meeting between the two bodies will be next February.
No other details on the process are available at this time, he said.
Officers of the Senior Officers Association agreed to a three-year deal that includes a 2 percent bump in salary for 2011 and a 2.5 percent bump for 2012.
Officers in the SOA agreed to pay 2.5 percent of their salaries into their health-care benefits. Currently, all public employees of Cherry Hill contribute to their health-care premiums.
Earlier in the year six junior police officers were laid off after the Cherry Hill Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 176 turned down a contract offer from the township. The PBA is also negotiating on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 28.
The junior officers had joined the Cherry Hill police force in 2008.
The township offered contracts to the officers that closely mirrored the deal brokered with the Cherry Hill Superior Officers Association earlier in the year, Chief of Staff Dan Keashen said.
The contract offer had the officers contributing to their health-care benefits and nominal pay increases after a pay freeze for some time.
A phone call to the PBA Local 176 was not returned.
