The Representative Town Meeting on Monday unanimously approved a three-year labor union contract for 30 Department of Public Works employees, raising wages a bit, capping future pensions and adopting a high-deductible for health insurance claims.
Costs for the current fiscal year — $90,000 — have already been factored into this year’s budget, RTM Public Works Committee Chairman Mark Adiletta said in a report to the full RTM. With savings in health insurance costs for the next fiscal year, the town will spend $40,000 more than the current fiscal year, he said. When health insurance changes take effect next year, it will save the town $20,000, Adiletta said. All other town labor unions, and the teachers union, have high-deductible health insurance plans, now, negotiated in previous contracts. According to Finance and Budget Committee Chairman James Palen, who also gave his committee’s report to the full RTM, changes to union members’ health insurance won’t go into effect until the next fiscal year (the last year of the contract) because health insurance enrollment has already closed.
