The West Windsor-Plainsboro school board has approved, 6-1, a new contract with the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Association that reflects a salary freeze for the entire 2010-’11 school year.
The association represents 350 employees, including secretaries, bus drivers, instructional assistants, custodians, assistant head custodians, maintenance workers, bus mechanics, bus aides, and cafeteria/playground aides.
The contract comes after more than 100 hours of negotiations in a two year period. The employees have been working without a contract since June 30, 2008, when the prior collective bargaining agreement expired.
The new contract calls for an increase of 3.55 percent for the 2008-’09 year; a 3.41 percent increase for the 2009-’10 school year; no increase for the 2010-’11 school year; and an increase of 2.9 percent for the 2011-’12 school year. In that year, the salary is frozen for custodial and maintenance employees unless parties negotiate an increase.
Those salaries are broken down and allotted differently based on the type of employee. “Salary increases were distributed among employment categories in accordance with salary guides approved by the union and the Board of Education,” the district said in a press release.
The press release states that a severance package for custodial and maintenance staff was also approved in the event the board decides to go with privatization.
Specifically, custodians and maintenance workers receive an increase of 3 percent for 2008-’09, 3 percent for 2009-’10, and zero increases for both 2010-’11 and 2011-’12. All other members, however, received a 3.8 percent increase for 2008-’09 and a 3.6 percent increase for 2009-’10, as well as a zero increase for 2010-’11. In the year 2011-’12, they will receive a 2.9 percent increase. This is according to information provided by the WW-P Service Association in a written statement.
“While there were many language changes and a decrease in the number of holidays and other types of days for all our 12-month members, not every position category receives the same compensation package,” the association said in its statement.
According to the district, the contract included “cost containments” in prescription and dental insurance premiums through increased co-pays and higher dental deductibles. In addition, the service association agreed to a reduction of two floating holidays and the elimination of the NJEA conference days as paid leave days for custodial and maintenance employees.
The changes in the insurance benefits for 2010-2011 include that prescription co-pays will increase to $15 for brand name drugs; $7 for generic drugs (the current level is $12 for brand names and $6 for generics); and two times the applicable co-pays for 90-day mail order. The annual dental deductible will be increased to $30 for an individual with a maximum of $60 for a family (the current annual deductible is $15 for an individual/maximum of $30 for a family).
For the 2011-’12 year, prescription co-pays will increase to $20 for brand name drugs, $10 for generic drugs, and two times the applicable co-pays for 90-day mail order. The annual dental deductible will be increased to $50 for an individual with a maximum of $100 for a family.
Board members applauded the association for freezing salaries for the upcoming school year. “The willingness to help lessen salary costs and health insurance benefits at a time when we are dealing with the loss of 71 percent of general state aid demonstrates the service association’s commitment to students and to the residents of both townships,” said Board President Hemant Marathe.
Randy Tucker, chair of the board’s negotiations team, said that he believes “we have negotiated a fair and reasonable settlement that recognizes the need to contain rising costs in salaries and health insurance benefits.”
Board member Todd Hochman voted against the contract, although he commended the service association for taking a salary freeze. “I would really like to be able to vote for this contract; I can’t,” said Hochman. “I simply can’t vote for a contract that does not have what I consider to be a significant contribution to health care premiums. I don’t consider an increase in co-pays and deductibles to be a contribution towards a premium.”
He referenced the new state law that requires public employees receiving medical and prescription health benefits to pay a minimum of 1.5 percent of their base salary toward their benefits as of May 21, or if covered by a labor contract, upon the expiration of the current contract.
Still, he called the service association’s agreement to a salary freeze “unprecedented.”
The union called attention to the settlement for 2010-’11 and 2011-’12. “While it is true that the board did accept bids for the privatization of the positions currently held by our custodians and maintenance workers, they have not made a final decision on the fate of these employees,” the association said in the statement. “With that in mind, the members of the association accepted a zero percent compensation package for next year and a 2.9 percent for the following year. It is our hope that the board will recognize the association’s efforts to keep the compensation costs down and factor it into their deliberations on privatization.”
The association also recalled the school board’s statements that “we would need to find a cost savings of $1.5 million within our contract if we wanted to save our custodians and maintenance workers.”
“We were presented with an impossible challenge as there is not $1.5 million to be saved in our contract,” the association states. “Had every member of our bargaining unit agreed to a compensation freeze from 2008 to 2012, and decreased their time off, it would not have generated $1.5 million. Plus, there is no legal guarantee that sacrifices made by our members would save our colleagues.”
Marathe said that for the past two years, members of the service association were being paid the same rate as their salaries reflected on June 30, 2008. Using the terms under the new contract, the members would be paid the difference taking into account the increase.
Marathe said the board had budgeted for the increases both last year and this year “because we knew we had to pay them eventually,” he said. “We kept them in one of the reserve accounts that people keep complaining about. If we didn’t keep the money in the reserve, we would not have been able to pay them.”
The new contracts don’t account for the $1.5 million savings included in the area of buildings and grounds in this year’s budget. “The $1.5 million is going to be saved above and beyond what we will save” in the contract, Marathe explained. “The fact they chose to freeze is very important to us. They are part of the sacrifice everybody is making.”
The severance package included in the approval is set up in varying slabs depending on how long each employee was in service, Marathe explained. “If we have to let 100 people go, it was only fair to give them something for their years of service,” Marathe said.
The association emphasized that its zero percent increase for the coming year was independent of the governor’s initiative for public school employees to take a wage freeze next year. “The agreement was reached prior to his initiative and made solely for the purpose to keep costs down in the hopes that it would help the plight of our custodians and maintenance workers.”
