BROCTON - Seven full-time employees in the town of Portland will be operating under an agreed upon contract between the town and CSEA, effective Jan. 1, 2013.
In accordance that the 2013/2014 contract is a good, workable agreement for both labor and management, Portland town council members authorized Town Supervisor Dan Schrantz to officially sign the agreement, which was settled at the table earlier than usual due to very little negotiation items.
The employees' contract calls for a 2 percent wage increase in both 2013 and 2014, with the contribution of 6 percent of health insurance costs coming from the employees. The town was able to realize a cost savings by switching health insurance providers in the last tentative agreement, even despite the employee contribution going up 2 percent.
One change in this union agreement will be the percentage amount to be reimbursed to an employee who is able to "buy out" the health insurance coverage offered by the town. Any employee covered under this contract who provides proof of other insurance stands to be reimbursed 24 percent of the benefit cost, rather than the 30 percent that the contract language called for prior.
"We've had very little negotiations necessary to agree on this contract, and no problems with it whatsoever, so myself and the council felt it was a good agreement to sign. It's a very fair contract, and we were fortunate to not have to enter into any associated legal fees that may have had to have been spent if an agreement weren't reached. It's nice for the workers and the town to be able to have spared any additional legal counsel fees from being spent," added Schrantz.
With the supervisor's signature in ink, the approved agreement was sent to CSEA officials and is set to cover Portland's workers for the coming two years.
