CSA Agrees to Defer Half of Retro Money

The Council of School Supervisors has agreed to defer half of a payment of $90 million in retroactive wages that was due in February until the first payroll period next November under a deal that assures the rank and file of no layoffs this school year.

The agreement, announced Nov. 5 by the de Blasio administration, brings it slightly more than two-thirds of the way toward the $1 billion in labor savings that the Mayor had demanded from the unions as a way of heading off up to 22,000 layoffs to deal with a $9-billion budget deficit. It has now achieved $680 million in savings in the fiscal year that runs through June 30, the greatest portion of it via a similar deferral by the United Federation of Teachers that netted $450 million in short-term savings and delays in benefit-fund payments to District Council 37 that were worth $164 million.