The borough assembly approved a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on April 9, covering public works, light and power, port and harbor and maintenance jobs, totaling about 23 positions.
The agreement includes amendments to some job descriptions and the wage and grade table, effective July 1.
Borough Manager Mason Villarma said they wanted to make sure changes were made to reflect inflation. He also said the borough noticed that some wages weren’t competitive with other municipalities, and that there were quite a few inequalities between similar roles within the borough.
The average wage increase across all positions is approximately 10% in the first year of the new contract. Villarma explained that rather than doing a blanket percentage increase for each job across the board, they evaluated each position’s grade on the wage and grade scale for equity and regraded many positions.
A cost-of-living adjustment of 2% will be applied to the wage and grade scale each year of the new contract.
The employer-employee split of health insurance premiums also changed, with employees paying a larger share. With the new agreement, employees will pay 20% and the borough will pay 80%. Previously, employees paid 15% while the borough covered 85%.
Vacation and sick time will be converted to paid time off, with a cap of 680 hours per year, which is standard for government jobs, Villarma said. Currently, vacation time is capped at 520 hours and sick time at 480 hours. He noted that currently employees could potentially take off a total of 1,000 hours, and changes were made to reduce the overall liability for the borough.
With the approval of the union negotiations, the borough also adjusted some of the non-union job descriptions and pay grades to ensure parity between similar jobs across the borough.
All non-union hourly employees will receive a 6% pay increase on July 1, and some positions will have pay grade adjustments on top of the increase. Salaried employees will receive a 4% increase on top of grade increases. Cost-of-living adjustments will be made annually, each spring.
Villarma said that while he knows it won’t please everyone, he is proud of the negotiating team’s work and believes the new wage scales correct some unfairness in job classes.
Reader Comments(0)