Luzerne County Council set to vote on 911 union contract addendum

Luzerne County Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a 911 union contract addendum aimed at addressing “recruitment, retention, scheduling and work-life balance issues” at the county’s emergency call center, officials said.

The primary change is a hybrid schedule that will switch new telecommunicators to 12-hour shifts and allow existing workers the option to change from eight to 12 hours based on their preference.

Telecommunicators on the 12-hour shifts will work three days one week and four days the next week in each two-week pay period, allowing them to have a weekend off every other week, officials said.

County officials believe this will be a major selling point in recruitment and retention because new workers typically had to wait years for available weekday-only schedules to open up with the existing model.

Under the proposed agreement, the starting salary for telecommunicator trainees will increase $2,000, to a new compensation of $39,750 per year, or $19.11 per hour.

The starting salary will rise to $40,000.00 in 2024 and $40,250.00 in 2025.

Existing 911 union workers will receive a $4,000 compensation increase, although the increase will be $2,000 for telecommunicator trainees hired after Sept. 1, 2023.

The lion’s share of 911’s expenses are covered by a state fee on land and wireless phone lines — not the county’s general fund operating budget, officials have noted.

Vacancies

As of Friday, there were 29 telecommunicator vacancies.

The 911 center is budgeted for 41 full-time telecommunicators and 23 more experienced telecommunicator specialists, the position list says. Eight part-time call-taker positions also are budgeted.

While the number fluctuates, approximately half of the full-time telecommunicator positions — 32 of 64 — were vacant much of this year.

“This is just one of the many ways we’re trying to combat this problem,” county Acting 911 Executive Director Lucy Morgan said of the proposed union agreement.

Morgan pushed hard for the conversion to hybrid shifts that she said was initiated before she started as interim 911 overseer the end of July, when prior executive director Fred Rosencrans left for other employment. Morgan is the county’s Emergency Management Agency Director.

Council unanimously voted last week to merge 911 and EMA at the administration’s request — a move officials said will improve public safety and lead to efficiencies.

When he left in July, Rosencrans said the administration and AFSCME union were “working aggressively” to address telecommunicator staffing challenges. He publicly highlighted the brewing staffing crisis during a budget presentation to council in November 2021, saying low pay and outside competition were hampering his efforts to attract and retain crucial telecommunicators to handle life-and-death emergency calls and swiftly and accurately dispatch responders.

Some area warehousing employers are now offering higher pay for positions that come with less stress and responsibility, he had said.

In a union contract county council approved last year, the starting salary for telecommunicator trainees had increased from $32,900 ($15.81/hour) to $37,500 ($18/hour), but vacancies persisted.

This April, officials announced 911 managers and supervisors have been assisting with emergency call-taking and dispatch due to the staffing shortage crisis. This assistance was necessary because many telecommunicators were required to work 16-hour days due to mandatory overtime, with some putting in 80 hours per week, officials had said.

Most 911 centers have changed to 12-hour shifts that reduce overtime and allow workers with less seniority to have some weekends off, Rosencrans has said.

If approved, the proposed memorandum would be added to the AFSCME Residual Union collective bargaining agreement that expires the end of 2025.

Morgan said 911 has been stepping up promotion of the telecommunicator position, stressing many emergency dispatch centers across the country face the same staffing challenges.

Recently, some part-time telecommunicators have switched to full-time, and several past telecommunicators have returned to county employment, she said.

“We’ve been having some success, but it’s going to take time,” Morgan said. “We have to keep moving forward, and having the support of the administration and council helps.”

Morgan said the 12-hour shifts should make a difference because many prospective employees do not want to wait years to have some weekends off as part of their regular schedule.

Based in Hanover Township, the county’s 911 center marked its 25th anniversary this year and provides police, fire and emergency medical dispatching for 175 agencies throughout the county.

It is one of the top 15 busiest of the 62 countywide dispatch centers in the state, processing an average 430,000 emergency and non-emergency calls annually, officials have said.

Tuesday’s council voting meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions to attend remotely are posted under council’s online meeting section at luzernecounty.org.

Information on telecommunicator openings is posted in the human resources department’s “career opportunities” section on the county site.