Town and Union Reach Deal
“There have been very few language changes in the contract,” Smith said, adding that the major issues were an increase in pay and the health plan.
The Board of Selectmen approved the contract to give a 2.5 percent pay increase this year, largely because Smith said the town wanted to keep expenses down as much as possible.
“That’s what we had budgeted for,” Smith said, referring to the appropriations for town employee salaries in the 2006-07 budget.
The desire to keep expenses down comes after properties in town were reevaluated increasing property taxes for many homeowners despite the fact that the town has a lower mill rate.
For the next fiscal year 2007-08 and the following fiscal year 2008-09, Smith said employees would receive a 3.5 percent increase each year.
When asked how the percentage increase was decided, Smith said, “It is equal to other towns.”
“Salaries are the biggest cost in any budget,” Smith said.
“A lot of employees live in town so they are receptive to working with the town to get a fair increase but not to strap the town,” Smith said, adding as wages increase, other things such as social security and workers compensation increase with it.
Smith said originally the union discussed the possibility of creating a disability plan covering town employees who could be injured outside work.
“It would add thousands to the budget and it was a sticking point in negotiations,” Smith said.
Instead of a disability plan, Smith said negotiations led to an increase of allowed accumulation of sick days.
Employees will receive an additional 12 days meaning they are allowed to accumulate a maximum of 162 days.
The town is encouraging employees to not use all their sick days each year so they can carry over to the next year and be applied if the employee has a serious illness or disability.
Smith said there are about 25 members of the union consisting of all part-time and full-time municipal employees except for elected officials and part-time committee clerks.
The town was able to get an agreement they can live with even though the union wanted more that was not included in the contract, Smith said.
“We’ve had tougher contract negotiations,” Smith said, adding this has been the fourth year he has been involved with helping formulate a contract between the union and the town.
