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Mahoning County CSB inks 18% pay hikes this year to correct 8-year wage freeze
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Children Services Board has reached a new three-year labor contract with Communications Workers of America Local 4300 that ends an eight-year wage freeze.
The agreement, which immediately raised starting pay for child welfare caseworkers from $13.94 to $15.73 per hour, is retroactive to Feb. 1, Randall Muth, CSB executive director, announced at Thursday’s county commissioners’ meeting.
The agreement raised the pay of the highest paid caseworker from $19.71 to $21.55 an hour.
The union represents 98 CSB staff members, including caseworkers and clerical workers and group home staff.
Pay increases average 18.34 percent this year, 1.11 percent in 2016 and 1.41 percent in 2017.
State law requires children services caseworkers to have bachelor’s degrees in a social work-related field.
The new contract raises minimum starting child welfare caseworker salaries here from last place to eighth place among 10 Ohio metropolitan county CSBs, according to figures supplied by Muth.
The agreement significantly improves the agency’s ability to attract and retain a well-qualified, experienced workforce and reduce turnover, Muth told the commissioners.
“In 2013, we lost 20 percent of our staff,” Muth said.
“I am confident that this agreement will make inroads into reversing the effects of the eight-year wage freeze, but, at the same time, it’s affordable and responsible,” he said.
The new contract, which was ratified by the union membership and CSB, would not have been affordable to CSB without passage last November of a real-estate tax levy that generates nearly $2.8 million more per year for the agency than the two levies it combined and replaced, Muth said.
The 1.85-mill, five-year levy approved last fall generates $7.3 million annually.
The county commissioners did not vote on the labor agreement, but let it take effect automatically by not acting on it within 30 days after they received it.
“It corrects some of the issues that have come up in the last six or seven or eight years since the economic downturn,” said Richard Schrader, union local president.
“It’s going to give the department the ability to retain the experience that they build,” he added.
In other business, James Fortunato, county purchasing director, announced exterior restoration work on the 104-year-old county courthouse began Wednesday.
Trustees Denny Furman of Berlin Township and Robert Toman of Ellsworth Township complained of the deteriorated condition of county roads in their townships.
They said they could provide the labor if the county would provide the asphalt for these road repairs.
Furman complained that portions of Ellsworth and Berlin Station roads in his township have complete pavement deterioration to the point where “safety vehicles need to slow down to a crawl.”