The contract applies to public utilities workers, seen here clearing snow on Broad Street last Saturday, as well as some clerical staffers at borough hall. (Click to enlarge)
By JOE FISHER
A revised contract between Red Bank and borough employees represented by the Communications Workers of America ends a request for mediation sought by the union.
Salary “steps” will be adjusted for both 2012 and 2013, meaning some of the borough’s 71 CWA Local 1038 employees will receive pay raises retroactive to January of last year.
The workers stand to receive a 2 percent raise for 2012 and a 1.75 percent bump this year.
The agreement, approved by the union earlier this month and adopted Wednesday night by the borough council, also adjusts when overtime pay kicks in and affects how employees accrue both paid sick days and personal days.
Council members and Mayor Pasquale Menna praised the municipal workers.
“We’ve always had a warm relationship with our public employees,” Menna said. “Where other towns have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on litigation, we have always been able to come to an agreement.”
As part of the memorandum of agreement, the union agreed to withdraw a request for arbitration that had been filed with the state Public Employment Relations Commission.
“They’ve done a great job throughout the years,’’ said Council President Art Murphy. The agreement approved last night “is well-deserved for them,” he said.
Councilman Michael DuPont concurred, saying the deal “epitomizes what workers and a municipality can do when they put their heads together.”
With 2013 being the final year of the unionÂ’s two-year contract, negotiations to hammer out a new pact are forthcoming.
