Santa Barbara County Firefighters Agree to Wage, Pension Concessions
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/090312_county_firefighters_agree_wage_pension_concessions/
By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @laraanncooper
The county Board of Supervisors will be asked to sign off on the tentative labor agreement during Tuesday's meeting
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will be asked to sign off on wage and pension concessions from a union representing more than 180 employees with the county Fire Department.
Firefighters Local 2046 has reached a tentative agreement, which includes giving up a portion of previously negotiated wage increases and asking new hires to pay part of their retirement cost-of-living adjustments.
The agreement would eliminate 1.5 percent from the total of previously negotiated wage increases, and the union also has agreed that there will be no wage increases for the next year.
The agreement would also reconfigure salary increases of 4 percent for the next two years, and 4½ percent in 2015. The changes would also eliminate a $70-per-pay-period employer-paid retirement offset for the future union employees as of this September.
As of 2014, negotiations would begin for current employees sharing the cost of retirement COLAs and additional changes to pension benefits and retiree medical for new employees.
The county estimates that these changes would save $1.4 million over the next year, with $450,000 as ongoing savings. All of those savings will remain in the Fire Department’s budget.
Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the Board Hearing Room on the fourth floor of the County Administration Building, 105 E. Anapamu St. in Santa Barbara.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/090312_county_firefighters_agree_wage_pension_concessions/