Updated 08/19/2011 09:57 AM
Parks Department Layoffs Shelved Under New Deal
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Hundreds of layoffs have been averted in a deal between the city and unionized Parks Department workers.
The deal allows the city to ask a number of full-time parks employees to voluntarily work as season employees while still collecting their pensions.
They will now work for six months out of the year for the next three years.
The deal with DC 37 will save $16 million this year -- enough to stave off the planned 465 layoffs.
In his weekly radio show, Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the deal.
"Both sides can say we got something that we wanted, not everything, but the agreement was that some people will go to seasonal work for the next three years and then be phased out, some will continue on as full time," said the mayor.
DC 37 is the city's largest municipal union.