New Luzerne County union contract boosts starting salaries

In addition to providing raises for existing employees, a new union contract with Luzerne County court-appointed support workers boosts starting salaries for those hired in the future.

Court officials pushed for higher starting salaries due to struggles recruiting and retaining support workers, echoing pleas that have been made in some other branches of county government wrestling with the same issue.

County council unanimously approved the agreement Tuesday, which covers approximately 87 clerks, aides and fiscal technicians in the probation, domestic relations and magisterial district judge offices represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). This contract had expired the end of 2022.

According to a comparison of the expired contract and approved changes:

The union positions are categorized in five grades, with starting salaries ranging from $23,115 in the first grade to $28,793 in the fifth.

Under the new agreement, starting salaries will rise $2,500 in all five categories this year, elevating the range from $25,615 to $31,293.

Starting salaries in all grades also will increase $250 annually in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

By the final year of the contract, the range will be $26,365 to $32,043.

Existing employees will receive a $3,000 base-pay increase this year — applied retroactively — and 2.5% raises annually from 2024 through 2026.

Training pay of $25 per day also was added to the new contract for employees authorized to train other employees. The additional pay will only be activated on days training is provided, it said.

Holidays

The union’s employees will receive Christmas Eve as a full-day holiday, instead of a half-day one.

This means the union now has 13.5 holidays, compared to the standard 12 for other workers.

This change evolved in the prior court-appointed support contract approved in 2019, when the county had agreed to provide two new half-day holidays on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve largely because the union made concessions involving the way vacation days were credited, the county administration said at that time.

The two additional half-day holidays became a bargaining chip in 2019 because the support workers are assigned to court offices that typically don’t schedule matters on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the administration had said. There were no plans to support adding holidays in other union agreements.

The remaining 12 holidays for court-appointed support employees and other county workers: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

More changes

Currently, the contract prohibits employer and union discrimination against any employee on the basis of race, creed, color, ancestry, gender, marital status, age, national origin, disability, union membership, political affiliation, AIDS or HIV status and sexual orientation.

Gender expression or identity, genetic information or any other protected classification are added in the new contract.

Employees promoted to a higher-grade position, such as a Clerk I to Clerk II, now receive the corresponding pay increase for the advanced grade as long as it does not exceed $1,500. That cap increases to $2,500 in the new agreement.

Health care

The union’s employees will continue paying the same percentages toward their health insurance — 12% of the total premium cost for those hired through 2015 and 15% for workers hired since 2016.

All county union workers have transitioned to contributions of at least 12%. Non-union workers have been paying 10% toward health insurance since 2004.

In total, the county has collective bargaining agreements with 10 unions and three memorandums of understanding with some human services supervisory workers. These memorandums are equivalent to collective bargaining agreements, the county said.

Another agreement

Council also unanimously voted Tuesday on an addendum to its memorandum of understanding with Area Agency on Aging supervisory workers represented by Teamsters Local Union 401.

The memorandum does not expire until the end of this year, but the administration sought immediate changes for two job classifications to address compensation challenges.

“The county has identified first level supervisor classifications that continue to experience salary compression, causing starting salaries for first level supervisors in those classifications to be lower than the starting salaries of the employees they supervise,” it said.

According to the new addendum, the following increased starting salaries will immediately take effect:

• Senior Center Manager 2, from $30,500 to $34,100.

• Aging Care Manager Supervisor 1 in the protective services department, from $39,900 to $46,400.

• Aging Care Manager Supervisor 1 in other departments, from $39,900 to $44,000.