Hamburg village police are working 12-hour days under a new contract with the village.

The switch to 12-hour days was the major change in a five-year contract approved by the Village Board on Monday night.

The shifts, which start at 6 a. m. and 6 p.m., will save the village money and give officers more days off, said Village Administrator Donald Witkowski.

“It puts more people on each shift,” he said.

The village also will eliminate the use of nine part-time officers, he said. Officers on the 12-hour shifts will not work five days in a row and will have more days off in a row than under a five-day-a-week schedule.

Patrol officers and lieutenants will work seven days in a 14-day period: two days on, followed by two days off, followed by three days on, followed by two days off, followed by two days on, followed by three days off.

They will end up working 168 more hours per year and still have more days off than a conventional schedule, he said. They also will get about one weekend off a month.

“We’ve been negotiating over a year,” Witkowski said.

The village has budgeted $60,000 a year for overtime and plans to cut that to $10,000, he said.

Another change in the contract will require new officers to contribute 20 percent of the cost of their health insurance.

Pay increases for each year will be the Consumer Price Index plus 0.5 percent.

There are 10 patrol officers and one detective in the Hamburg Police Benevolent Association. The captain and chief are not members of the union.

The contract is effective June 1 to May 31, 2015, and carries provisions for the village and the union to opt out with proper notice.