The phrase “Retroactive Payment” is not in the MoA

Instead, what we have been calling retro appears as:

Lump Sum Payments stemming from the 2009-2011 Round and schedule for actives for those continuously employed as of the day of payout.

This is the title of one section of the Memorandum of Agreement (with the payment schedule below). And in the entire MoA, there is not another word about retroactive payments for in-service members. For most of us, there will be no difference between retroactive raises on the one hand, and a “2009-2011 Round” on the other.

But there are details in the agreement which are worth pointing out. We did not earn this money, according to the agreement, in 2009, 2010, and 2011. We will earn it when have been continuously employed as of each payout date (and once we retire, the payments are locked in).

What difference does it make if we earned it in 2010, or we earn it in 2015, if the first payout is in 2015 anyway? The difference is for those who do not receive any payout at all.

• People who have quit, or will quit before 2015. They may have worked in 2009, but they did not earn retro.
• People who quit between 2015 and 2020. They will have worked for a chunk of time that retro was theoretically accumulating, but they will only receive 12.5% or 25% or…
• People who are discontinued, or will be discontinued before 2015. They may have worked in 2009, but they did not earn retro.
• People who will be discontinued between 2015 and 2020. They will have worked for a chunk of time that retro was theoretically accumulating, but they will only receive 12.5% or 25% or…

Not every discontinuance is undeserved. We know that. But in the age of Bloomberg, hundreds of teachers were unfairly discontinued each year. We expect this number will fall under de Blasio and Fariña, but we don’t know. It hasn’t happened yet. And we worry because the new administration has been slow to make its presence felt in the school system.

The word “continuous” raises questions. I do not know the answers, but will ask:

• People who leave now, and retire later (eg, you reach 30 years and you are only 53. Stop working now, but retire in two years. Have you been continuously employed?)
• People who take childcare leave for a year (do they get all the payments up to that point? All the payments?  All the payments except the one due when they are out?)
• People who take childcare leave for more than one year
• People who take a leave for personal reasons, and return a year later (do they get all the payments, or none?)
• People who take a leave for personal reasons, and return a year later, and that leave includes one of the payout dates (do they get all the payments, all but the one when they are on leave, or none?)
• People who are brought up on charges (often now they agree to a lesser charge of wrongdoing and pay a small fine – will the DoE start exacting a ‘break in service?’