School District 55 and its classified employees association settled a three-year contract last week with the board’s ratification.
The agreement followed more than a year of negotiations that eventually ended up in mediation. Leading up to the mediation were a number of issues ranging from salary and insurance benefits to use of sick leave, use of temporaries and how vacancies were to be filled.
The new contract is retroactive to July 1, 2000 and ends on June 30, 2003.
Use of temporary employees
The classified negotiation team had proposed making temporary workers permanent after a year.
“When we got right down to it, we were able to show we weren’t abusing (temporary time) in the district,” Business Manager Russell Allen said. The problem for the district came in with grant positions, such as the three-year Community Learning Centers grant, which uses a large number of temporary positions. At the end of such a grant, there could be people bumped and moved around the district.
The settled language provides protection to temporary employees after a year in discipline and dismissals. Employees could not be dismissed early because of performance with out due process. The district is required to notify the classified association of temporary positions and the expected duration of the positions.
Vacancies
Previous language had required the School District to hire from within the district if there were three qualified applicants when filling job vacancies.
The district wanted to hire the “best-qualified” employee, Allen said. That may mean advertising outside of the district. The debate over the language represented a philosophical disagreement between the board and the union.
The classified association wanted to make sure the district would hire from within when employees were qualified.
New language changed the contract to allow the district to determine if there are sufficient qualified in-district employees. If not, then the district may advertise outside the district, leaving the district employees the opportunity to apply from within.
“The concept remains,” Allen said. “What we did is we got away from the rigidness. Given the choice, we’ll always prefer an internal candidate. We would prefer to hire from within the district. We just want to be able to hire the best.”
Sick leave for families
A contentious issue between the two bargaining teams, the new contract continues to allow classified employees the ability to use all of their sick leave for family illnesses.
The classified and district’s bargaining teams defined family member, meaning that employees may use sick leave to care for an immediate family member, based on the Oregon Family Leave Act, including spouses, children, parents, in-laws and dependents.
Personal leave
Language was removed from the classified contract that prohibited them from using personal days for recreation. The association receives two personal days each year.
Salaries
All classified employees will receive a 2.2 percent, based on a 1999 consumer price index, increase in pay for the first year of the contract, 2000-01.
In the second and third years, the classified association will receive a three-tiered approach to salaries aimed at bringing underpaid employees closer to average pay for their job based on a survey completed by the district bargaining team.
The group of employees who are paid below-average wages includes secretaries, specialized maintenance positions and an offset press operator. That group will receive a 3.9 percent increase in 2001-02 and 2002-03.
The group of employees around the average, under the study, including most positions, will receive a 3.4 increase both years.
The group of employees earning above-average wages, including custodial staff, custodial assistants and mechanics, will receive a 3 percent increase both years.
The second year also was based on a CPI. The fourth year was not tied to CPI.
Insurance
The amount the district pays for insurance benefits, the insurance cap, was increased from $424 to $439 in 2000-01, the first year of the new contract. It will increase to $454 in 2001-02.
In 2002-03, the insurance cap will increase to $485 unless the teachers union negotiates a higher cap for that year. That year will be the first year of a new contract, which remains to be negotiated, for teachers.
Insurance premiums are becoming cost-prohibitive to continue paying full-time benefits to part-time employees, Allen said. The district proposed decreasing its contribution for new part-time employees.
For employees between 4 and 4.9 hours, the district will pay 50 percent of the insurance cap. For employees between 5 and 6.5 hours, the district will pay 75 percent. Employees working more than 6.5 hours per day will receive the full cap. The prorated amounts apply only to new employees.
The association proposed a one-time payment for classified employees if a certain number of them waived their insurance benefits. If that happened, the district could use the savings to provide additional compensation to classified employees.
If 12 employees waive their insurance benefit by January, then each member of the association will receive a check for 1 percent of their 2000-01 salaries.
“The district is extremely pleased that the contract negotiations are complete and that we can move on,” Allen said.
“We got the best that we could for now,” classified bargaining team member Carolyn Wheeler said. “I don’t think we gained a lot. We kept a few things they were trying to take away, and we gave up a few things too.”
The classified association opposed a tiered salary increase, and it did not go over well with the membership, Wheeler said. “There are a lot of our people who are underpaid, but it’s hard to compare people with other districts.”