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Minutes 06-09-01DATE: LOCATION: SUBJECT: MEMORANDUM OF MEET~'NG S'I'ART TIME: END TIME: ATTENDEES: NAME TITLE PHONE# IAFF Local 1891 6/19/01 Meeting on reopener items in contract Attending: For IAFF: Matt Keeler Barkley Garnsey Dean Kinser Randy Jute Michael Fitzpatrick Secretary x6606 Business Agent x6327 Vice President x6340 President x6340 Treasurer 632-9578 For the City: Wilfred Hawkins Mary Munro David Liu Carol Cheek Asst. City Mgr. x6012 Budget Coordinator x6214 Deputy Fire Chief x6339 HR Coordinator x6278 Meeting started at 11:25 a.m. Both the union and the City recorded the meeting. Meeting ended at 12:30 p.m. The union presented a Union Contract Package Proposal. Two of the items were not reopener issues stated in the contract. The wording on the proposal (copy attached) stated: The Union Agrees To: Freeze the minimum Probationary Employee pay at October 1, 1999 level, i.e. $11.84. Accept a reasonable Post-Accident Drug Testing add-on to Article 12 Section 5, Drug Free Workplace. If The City of Boynton Beach Agrees To: · Provide a one-percent (1%), across the board, base salary increase to compensate for lost earnings due to the increased health insurance premiums. Eliminate the two-tiered Vacation Plan and provide every employee with the vacation benefits enjoyed by those employees hired before October 1, 1993, i.e. those benefits known as Plan A. The Union asked if anyone at the table could TA any agreements and "cut any deals". Wilfred Hawkins said he had the authority and if there were any questions abou the the decision making, he would let them know. Wilfred Hawkins asked the Union to go through their proposal and clarify their requests. The Union acknowledged that there only two of the items were for reopening, but the two other items had come up since their contract was ratified. They said they had checked with their attorney and their attorney said that a package deal as presented was proper. Jute continued that they believed Human Resources knew about the 1% at the time and did not tell them or they would probably not settled their contract as they did. Garnsey presented some calculations he had done about the cost for giving the Firefighters the 1% (on base rate) and their interpretation about how much money they had "lost". (Copy attached). Later noted that his calculations were incorrect and penciled in new numbers. Freeze startinq rate: Kinser explained about how the pay scale, as agreed to in the contract, would allow a new firefighter in the second or third year of the contract to be hired at a higher rate than one who had been hired the previous year, since that longer service person's annual pay increase and promotion to Firefighter I would not yet have occurred. Hawkins had a copy of a previous letter of understanding regarding this rate freeze which had been proposed but not implemented. Vacation Jute explained that they want to have all firefighters on the same plan - the higher accrual plan. They believe that increasing the amount of vacation does not cost the City anything since their department does not allow vacation days if it would cost the department overtime. Munro explained that it could eventually cost additional because more is accrued and then paid out upon termination. They did a survey (copy attached) of 10 other agencies comparing their vacation schedules to Boynton Plan B. A change would affect about 35 employees - increased schedule not to be retroactive. Dru,q Testin.q / Policy Current contract states they will follow City policy. They still have a concern about general random testing, but feel in a circumstance such as accident maybe involving injury or severe damage to vehicles or the lieutenant, captain or battalion chief had some concern that there was reasonable suspicion maybe they could come up with a policy for that. The union asked the City to provide wording they could look at for this topic. The City will review the State Administrative Code regarding drug testing to determine whether any changes need to be made and will then provide the union with proposed wording for an article in the contract. Deputy Chief Liu had the original proposed drug testing wording which he will provide to the Union now. Recap Jute says the Union wants to look at the issues which are identified in the contract and also at items which have come up since then. They feel their package offers a fair deal. Hawkins said he feels the freeze for probation firefighters is no problem and that we can work through something on drug testing. The vacation plan can be worked out as well. Hawkins said the 1% is a larger problem. The Union is asking for it to be in their base rate Whereas everyone else got a lump sum. In addition, the Union got a 4.5% increase whereas others got 4%. They still feel they are entitled to something because of the way it transpired. If they had known at negotiations, it would have become a piece of the puzzle. Garnsey stated that the reason the firefighters got 4.5% was because the City wanted to do away with the matrix pay schedule and go to pay for performance. They feel they gave up a lot. They also feel that their new increased pay helped slow turnover. Hawkins stated he thought three of the items could be worked through quickly. Jute said they did not want things to drag along and if most things could be resolved, they would be willing to work through anything else. Action Items: Both sides will review the draft Letter of Understanding regarding the probationary firefighter hiring rate. This affects 16 people. Chief Liu will provide the Union with copies of the Drug Testing article wording and a proposed blended vacation schedule. Cheek will provide Hawkins with a copy of the State Administrative code regarding drug testing. The City will review the request for the 1% additional pay. Hawkins said we want to look at each item individually and in the end we will have a package. Most items are philosophical except for the 1% which can be discussed. Remember that the City is limited to what it is able to pay all of us. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 10:00 a.m. IAFF LOCAIJ 1891 RANDY-JUTE~RESIDENT Union Contract Package Proposal June 19, 2001. The Union Agrees To: Freeze the minimum Probationary Employee pay at October 1, 1999 level, i.e. $11.84. Accept a reasonable Post-Accident Drug Testing add-on to Article 12 Section 5, Drug Free Workplace. If The City of Boyntofi Beach Agrees To;. Provide a one-percent (1%), across the board, base salary increase to compensate for lost earnings due to the increased'health insurance premiums. Eliminate the two-tiered Vacation Plan and provide every employee with the vacation benefits enjoyed by those employees hired before October 1, 1993, i.e. those benefits known as Plan A. IAFF Proposal 06/192001 · ! - ,-.~ ' ~ cd ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I,,,4 ........... · c~ ~ ,~ oc,,i ~ ......... 0 rO (~ ¢'0 " ¢'~ - '--,- · '-,~ · 0 ~' ~ ~,u ~ CD ID '" ,~ -. ,..: ,.: ~,.~ ~ .......... Cost To IAFF Members for Insurance Premium Increase Employee Employee/Children Employee/Spouse Eployee/Family Number IJollar PPO 10 Old PPO 10 Enrolled Difference Annual Difference 0 0 32 $0.00 $0.00 119.4 91.22 3 $358.20 . $9,313.20 138.45 105.77 I $138.45 $3,599.70 181.4 138.6 12 $2,176.80 $56,596.80 Employee Employee/Children Employee/Spouse Eployee/Family NumOer Dollar PPO 32 Old PPO 32 Enrolled Difference Annual Difference 0 0 I $0.00 $0.00 108.55 91.22 0 $0.00 $0.00 125.86 105.77 0 $0.00 ' $0.00 164.94 138.6 0 $0.00 $0.00 Employee Employee/Children Employee/Spouse Eployee/Family Number Dollar HMO Old HMO Enrolled Difference Annual Difference 0 0 27 $0.00 $0.00 108.55 91.22 3 $325.65 $8,466.90 125.86 105.77 2 $251.72 $6,544.72 164.94 138.6 5 $824.70 $21,442.20 Totals $4,075.52 6/19/01