TRUMBULL COUNTY Child-support workers join AFSCME pay plan

The county's personnel director said the pay grades are fair and treat most employees the same.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3808, one of the few remaining unions still outside Trumbull County's unified pay scale system, has voted to come on board.
The county commissioners approved an agreement Wednesday with the union, which represents 67 workers at the Trumbull County Child Support Enforcement Agency. Their contract expires this summer.
Under the agreement, workers at the county agency will adopt job descriptions and a 17-grade pay plan developed by the county human-resources department six years ago.
And they'll get a 31/2 percent pay raise in August, when the raise is applied to union workers and managers on the pay-grades plan.
"Above all, it is fair," said Jim Keating, the county's director of personnel. "You are treating people the same way."
Gradual: The new job descriptions and pay grades have been phased in slowly because county employees are represented by a multitude of unions. Highway workers, deputy sheriffs, 911 dispatchers and Teamsters who deliver meals and drive seniors remain outside the system of unified job descriptions.
Employees at the county's job and family services department follow state job descriptions and pay scales, Keating said.
About 650 county employees across a number of departments, agencies and courts have been designated with one of the 200-plus job descriptions and the pay grade that goes with it.
The pay grades range from $16,826 for a janitor with no experience, to $85,457 for a grade 17 department head with 20 years' experience. A top-level union employee, such as a building inspector or sewer plant operator, could be at grade 11 on the scale, earning $51,116 with 20 years' experience.
siff@vindy.com