LTC 203-2007 CWA Contract Negotiations Update~i~~~~~
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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. 203-2007 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor David Dermer and Members of the City Commission
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FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager ,~
DATE: August 29, 2007
SUBJECT: CWA CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
On August 20, 2007, after six (6) negotiation sessions, the negotiation teams for the
City and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) successfully reached a
tentative agreement and concluded contract negotiations for athree-year collective
bargaining agreement for the period of October 1, 2006, through September 30,
2009. Formal negotiations with the CWA began in January 2007.
All employees whose classifications are covered by the Communications Workers of
America (CWA) collective bargaining agreement (approximately 464 employees) will
have an opportunity to vote for contract ratification on Friday, August 31, 2007.
Pending a successful ratification vote, a resolution will be presented to Commission
on September 5, 2007 for the new agreement. The agreement will amend the
pension, leave and salary ordinances in accordance with the new terms and
conditions of the contract.
The contract negotiations will retroactively allow for the same cost of living
adjustments (COLA) that were afforded to the other four (4) collective bargaining
units, non-represented and unclassified employees. The COLA adjustment for the
CWA will be paid retroactively and effective with the first payroll period ending in
October 2006. The COLA will be 6% in Year I of the contract, 5% in Year 2 of the
contract and 4% in Year 3 of the contract.
The Administration also negotiated a voluntary early retirement option (ERIP) as
part of the 2006-2009 collective bargaining agreement with the CWA. Under the
new ERIP, bargaining unit members age 47 or older with 25 or more years of
credited service as of January 25, 2008, would be eligible for the ERIP. Eligible
members would have to elect the ERIP and retire between October 27, 2007, and
January 25, 2008. Members who elect the ERIP would receive their accrued benefit
underthe MBERP with no penaltyfor early retirement. As negotiated, the new ERIP
would also be available to members of the AFSCME and GSA bargaining units.. It is
estimated that twenty (20) employees in the civilian bargaining units will be eligible
for the ERIP. Of the twenty (20) employees, ten (10) are in the CWA. The actuarial
cost for ERIP is approximately $147,420 (for the CWA unit). If all eligible
employees in the CWA were to take advantage of the ERIP, the overall savings is
estimated at $25,666, due to payroll savings from hiring replacements at entry level
salaries versus the higher salaried employees retiring.
LTC CWA Contract Negotiations Update
August 28, 2007
Page 2 of 2
Due to a market rate analysis conducted by the Human Resources Department,
several classifications within Property Management and Code Compliance will be
changed to a higher pay grade to remain competitive in the market place.
The union time bank has been increased from 1500 to 3000 hours per year.
During the term of this contract, the City will re-institute a sick leave sell back
program. The purpose of the program is to provide an incentive to use less sick
leave time and thereby decreasing the need for overtime to replace sick all outs. In
addition, since employees are selling back their sick time throughout the term of the
contract instead of at the end of their employment (when the sick time is at its
highest value), the overall cost is reduced. The sick leave sell back program would
allow the sell back of up to fifty (50) hours each year, as long as the employee
retains a minimum of 360 combined sick and vacation leave and meets other
necessary requirements as outlined in the program. The maximum number of sick
leave hours that may be sold back on each sell back date shall be reduced by one
hour for each hour of unscheduled leave (sick time and emergency vacation) the
employee used during the applicable annual sell back period (e.g., if an employee
uses 10 hours of sick time he is only eligible to sell back forty (40) hours).
The new contract increases the maximum payout for vacation at time of separation
to 620 hours, which is an increase from the current 480 hours.
At the request of the union to standardize the seniority article of the contract, the
seniority of all employees in the CWA unit will be measured by the length of time
they have been employed by the City, rather than measuring seniority by the time in
grade in a particular classification, (as it is currently done in some classifications).
The overall cost of the three (3) year collective bargaining agreement with the CWA
is $3,527,332. The 2006-2009 percentage cost of the CWA contract is 18.3% as
compared to 18.1 % for the IAFF (Fire) contract and 20.4% for the FOP (Police)
contract.
The completion of the CWA collective bargaining agreement concludes negotiations
with City's five collective bargaining agreements for the 2006-2009 contract terms
(2007-2010 for AFSCME).
If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact
me.
JMG/RI/LG
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