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White Collar Union Negotiation Minutes - 3-7-08Minutes of the Special Magistrate Hearing March 7, 2Q~8 Present: James Brady (Special Magistrate) George Foster (Chief Negotiator for the City) Andy Bemis (Business Manager for Employees' Local 630) Jack Baldwin (Union Steward) Yvonne Calverley (Recording Secretary) Special Hearing called to order by Mr. Brady at 9:00 am. 1. Both the City and the Unions agreed that a post brief would not be necessary. However, both parties indicated that they desired to provide a verbal summary of positions at the end of the hearing. 2. Impasse Items. It was agreed that the City of Atlantic Beach and the Blue Collar and White Collaz Unions have the following impasse items. a. City - Effective date of pay increase. Will pay be effective upon contract approval or retroactive to some other date? General Pension Plan vesting. The City desires to change the vesting, for new employees, from 5 yeazs to 10 years. b. Union - Top Out Bonus. In addition to any COLA provided, the Union is requesting an annual $1,0001ump sum Top Out bonus be provided to employees at the maximum pay for their grade. - Longevity Pay. The Union is requesting that Longevity Pay be increase by $5 per each 5 years of service. In addition, the Union is requesting that Longevity Pay be added to base pay for the White Collar Union. Note: It is currently paid as an additional pay for White Collaz Union employees and included within the base pay for Blue Collar Union members. 3. A brief overview of the city's workforce and Unions along with the pay history for both (identical for both Blue and White Collaz Unions) was provided to the Special Magistrate. He was advised that the city has approximately 110 full time employees with three labor unions (Blue, White and Police). The Blue Collar Union has approximately 35 to 40 members and was created about 16 years ago. The White Collar Union has 25 to 30 members and was created about four years ago. He was also provided with a summary of the City's pay actions since October 1, 2001 along with the specifics of each yeazs pay actions. 4. The Special Magistrate was provided with a summary of contract negotiations and advised that negotiations began on August 2, 2007. - City. The City had four items proposed for contract changes to include increasing pension vesting for new employees from 5 years to 10 years. Pay adjustments were also proposed pending city commission budget workshop and a Shade Meeting. - Union. No Contract changes or pay proposals were presented. August 20, 2007 -Budget Workshop held with City Commission The following verbally presented by Union: September 17, 2007 Meeting -Union stated that the City had changed its position since the last meeting held on September 12a'. Union indicated that the City had agreed to remove all items and also had agreed to provide the Union with the pay increases as previously proposed. October 1, 2007 Meeting -City advised Union that they needed to have the 10-year vesting approved by the Union along with the pay proposals. Union accepted the city's pay proposals, but not the 10-year vesting. City was to set up a SHADE meeting with the commission. Due to election, city advised the Union that a meeting might not be able to be scheduled until after the new commissions had taken office. December 3, 2007 Meeting -Summary of city's position on pending issues was provided to the Union. One of the issues that the City needed to have was the 10-year vesting approved by the Union along with the pay proposals. At this time, retroactivity was still "on the table" with retroactivity to Oct 1~` being provided if an agreement could be reached. Union agreed to accept the pay proposal, but would not accept the 10 year vesting. Union felt that the City had not negotiated in "good faith" and that they were misled by the Chief Negotiator when they were advised that the SHADE meeting was to be with the current seated commission and the subject of the increase in pension vesting was never discussed during the budget workshops. The Union provided the Special Magistrate a copy of a CD recording of the budget workshops and stated, "no where on the CD was 10-year vesting discussed with the commission". The City Chief Negotiator presented a copy of a December 4, 20071etter to the Union with the PowerPoint presentation that was given to the commission during the budget workshop. Although the City may not have discussed each and every item on the presentation (some of them were self-explanatory), the pension vesting issue was listed on several slides. The "Recommendations" slide also contained a recommendation to change general pension vesting along with a $14,500 Budget reduction listed on the "Summary Budget Impact" slide. 2 No agreement could be reached between the City and the Unions at the December 3, 2007 meeting, after which, the City declared an impasse. 5. Pension. City Negotiator stated that the city's current pension plan is costly and should be used to award long term employees. City Negotiator distributed several handouts to show the history and changes made to the pension plan. Historical comparative rates -shows city contribution only, does not include the employee's contribution. Actuarial Report determines the formula used and is data provided by a professional actuarial company and not from the city. Trend of funding going in "wrong direction". City must find a way to reverse this trend. Union: - Union thinks that there have been substantial changes and not enough time has passed to truly see the changes play out. - Union asked "why is the City trying to sell this as a benefit for the long term employees". - Union upset on the way this issue was presented tv them -tied to the pay. 6. Top Out Bonus. Union (lack Baldwin) stated that an employee at the top of the pay scale has not been getting pay increases, only COLAs. City Negotiator stated that the fundamental idea of the Palmer and Cay Pay Study was that there was a minimum, mid-point and maximum for every job. City has been providing a COLA increase each year to those employees at the maximum pay. City does not support a top out bonus for employees. An update to pay was conducted in 2005 during which a significant number of union members were reclassified. Additionally, if a Top Out bonus were given to employees in grades 13 through 17, they would receive a pay increase greater than that given to other employees in the same grades. The Union and City discussed the typical a step plan and Union disagreed with the city's description of a step plan. 6. Longevity. The City stated that the Blue Collar Union has their longevity pay added to their base pay while the White Collar has longevity pay as a separate pay item. Union recommends increasing longevity from $25.00 to $30.00 per month, which they believe is keeping with the city's position of awarding its long term employees. The City's current pay system is merit pay based and not based upon longevity. City explained that having the longevity included in the employee's base pay, will only make them "max out" earlier. Union indicated that they did not want to make any changes to the current language on either the Blue or White Collar unions and do not desire to include the White Collar longevity pay into base pay. They are only proposing to increase the amount from $25.00 to $30.00. 7. Special Magistrate Brady strongly recommended to both parties that in future negotiations that the TA negotiating process be used because it is extremely helpful in "cleaning up" the table. 3 8. Special Magistrate Brady completed his fact finding and requested that he be given 21 calendar days or until March 28, 2008 to review all documents and to make his written recommendation. Both the City and the Unions agreed to his request. The special hearing adjourned at 10:20 am. George F ter Chief Negotiator City of Atlantic Beach 4