Commissioners to OK 4-year pact to increase 911 workers' base pay

MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County commissioners are expected to approve a contract today with the United Steelworkers of America's bargaining unit representing 25 full- and part-time Emergency 911 telecommunicators.
Bill Boyle, county director of Administrative Services, said the contract would increase base wages 2.25 percent over four years and would be retroactive to Jan. 1. Workers' pay ranged from $9.73 an hour to $15.17 an hour under the contract that expired Dec. 31, 2004.
In addition, under the new contract, workers would begin receiving a shift differential of 25 cents for afternoon turn and 20 cents for midnight turn, during the first year of the pact. For the remaining three years, those figures would go to 30 cents and 25 cents, respectively.
Another new feature is a 10-cent-an-hour longevity payment for employees with 10 or more years of service as of Dec. 31 of this year. In 2007 and 2008 that hourly payment will go to 20 cents and 30 cents, respectively.
The settlement leaves only the USWA bargaining unit representing about 15 deputy sheriffs and three clerical workers without a contract.
Commissioners also intend today to approve an increase from one to two paid personal days per year for all county employees.
Until now, employees got one day and a second only if they had used less than one week of sick leave the previous year.
Boyle said the change is being made because it was agreed to in the recently ratified union contracts. The county will extend it to all employees.