Government & Politics
Town Hall

RTM Unanimously Approves Public Works Union Contract

By |
Download PDF

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.

Government & Politics
Town Hall

Selectmen Endorse Public Works Union Contract: 2%, 2.5% and 2.5% Wage Increases

By |
Download PDF

A three-year contract already ratified by the Darien Public Works Employees’ Union was endorsed unanimously Monday by the Board of Selectmen. The contract, for which negotiations stretched so late that the first year of it has already passed, calls for a 2 percent wage increase for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and 2.5 percent wage increases for the next two fiscal years, ending June 30, 2017. There are 26 members in the union, most of whom are at the top step of the wage scale, W. Lee Palmer, the town director of human resources told selectmen at their regular board meeting on Monday. Town Administrator Kathleen Buch said the contract will cost the town about $90,000 in increased spending for wages and health insurance. Buch told the board she estimates the town should save roughly $40,000 in the 2016-2017 fiscal year in health insurance costs.