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4-day work week gets nod
PROVINCETOWN Ñ Selectmen ratified a contract with Town Hall union employees Monday night that will result in a four-day work week for most municipal staff.
As a result, Town Hall will be closed to the public on Fridays. In addition, hours at the transfer station will be reduced. Currently the transfer station is open Tuesday through Sunday in the winter from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and seven days a week in the summer from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Under the tentative new schedule, winter hours will be reduced by one day each week plus one hour each day, open Tuesday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Summer hours will also be reduced, with the transfer station open six days a week and one less hour per day.
The department of public works originally proposed closing the transfer station on Sunday in the summer but selectmen vetoed that idea Monday night. DPW director David Guertin said he is working on a new proposal for the summer schedule.
In addition, municipal trash collection, which now stretches over five days a week, will be condensed into four days but all the properties currently receiving pick-up will continue to do so on a weekly basis.
ÒTheir Friday [trash pick up] may become a Thursday, or Wednesday may become a Tuesday,Ó Guertin said, adding that the new schedule will be publicized as soon as it is approved.
In addition to the shorter work week, union members will receive a 4.5 percent salary increase in both year two and three of the three-year contract. The contract will take effect Nov. 12.
Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union local, which represents 48 non-management municipal staff members, voted 30-2, with two invalid votes, to approve the three-year contract.
ÒI canÕt believe two people even voted no,Ó said Joyce Matthews, president of the AFSCME local. ÒEverybody else realizes itÕs a good deal.Ó
The terms of the new contract call for union employees to work nine hours over a 10-hour work day, four days a week; the 10 hours includes a paid lunch hour each day. As a result, they will be working 36 hours Ñ four fewer hours each week, a 10 percent decrease. Union staff currently are paid to put in eight hours over a nine-hour day, five days a week, and are not paid for their lunch hour, resulting in a 40-hour work week.
Town Manager Sharon Lynn said the new contract was a fair deal for both the town and union. She had originally asked voters to approve a Proposition 2 1/2 budget override, raising taxes by $106,340 to pay for a three-percent salary increase. While the measure passed at April Town Meeting, it resulted in a tie ballot vote in the May election, causing the measure to fail. As a result, there was no money to fund a salary hike in FY 2009, and Lynn asked the union to Òget creativeÓ in its contract demands, Matthews said.
As for giving union staff an effective pay increase by reducing their hours by 10 percent, Lynn said the employees had to be rewarded for foregoing a bigger paycheck in the first year of their contract.
ÒThatÕs what negotiations are, a give and take,Ó Lynn said. ÒI donÕt know how much less theyÕre working. Many of the employees work through their lunch hour.Ó
What the town receives in return for agreeing to a shorter workweek is it does not have to raise $106,340 this fiscal year. However, funding for the 4.5-percent salary increase in year two of the contract will have to be found in FY 2010.
Board of selectmen chair Michele Couture said the contract eliminates the need for selectmen to go to Special Town Meeting this fall to ask voters to approve a tax hike to pay for a union member salary increase.
ÒThe town is not paying out tax dollars. ThatÕs my reality,Ó she said.
The board voted 4-0 Monday night to approve the contract, with Selectman Mary-Jo Avellar recusing herself because her husband is a town employee. Selectman David Bedard said the new contract was in the best interests of the town.
ÒI thought Sharon did the best job she could with the contract,Ó he said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Aug 28th, 2008