New 4-year contract with sheriff’s deputy association approved
Agreement includes 7 hourly rate increases
BY KEVIN BONESKE
REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
A resolution implementing a new four-year contract with Oneida County’s sheriff’s deputy association was approved Tuesday by the County Board.
“In my tenure – I’ve been here 25 years – we’ve never negotiated a four-year contract,” said county human resources director Lisa Charbarneau. “In looking at what this brings, and what was a voluntary settlement, I think it’s kind of precedent-setting as far as some of the other counties who have asked for copies of this and why we went with the deal that we did. There are now other counties looking to do the same.”
The new agreement puts in place a series of hourly rate increases in the deputy association’s wage scale, which takes effect in the four-year period starting from Dec. 30, 2017, to the beginning of the payroll closest to Dec. 31, 2021.
As stated in the resolution, the hourly rate increases are as follows:
- 30, 2017 – 1 percent
- June 30, 2018 – 1 percent
- 29, 2018 – 1 percent
- June 29, 2019 – 2 percent
- April 4, 2020 – 2 percent
- 26, 2020 – 1 percent
- June 26, 20201 – 2 percent
Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association (VEBA) deposits made by the county would increase over the contract period so that a per-pay period deposit in each employee’s VEBA account would be equal to: $95.85 – December 2017; $96.81 – June 2018; $97.78 – December 2018; $99.74 – June 2019; $101.73 – April 2020; $102.75 – December 2020; and $104.81 – June 2021.
The VEBA account deposit in effect as of Jan. 1, 2017, is at $94.90. The deposit amount will be recalculated for each subsequent year of the agreement based upon the annual cost of living adjustment.
Other contract provisions listed in the resolution include language for hospital and sickness insurance, in which the county “may offer multiple plans and shall contribute 90 percent of the designated preferred premium plan” with the employee paying the remainder.
According to the resolution’s fiscal impact statement, the total cost of the wage and fringe benefit increases over the next four years will come to $597,349. However, when factoring in projected health insurance savings, which assume a 0 percent increase in health insurance, no change in employee/employer contributions of 10/90 percent and new hires and vacant positions will be filled by those who will take preferred single coverage, the net contract cost is estimated at $529,395.
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