County OKs AFSCME Contract; Salary Hikes Average 2.3%

CREST HAVEN – Cape May County government’s 686 members of local 3596 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have a new contract that will remain through Dec. 31, 2018. The former contract expired July 1, 2013. Negotiations had been ongoing since that time.
The contract was unanimously approved by freeholders May 12 without comment. It had been ratified by union rank and file members in December 2014.
“Reaching an agreement was a long, arduous process. In the end it was a collaborative effort between the AFSCME bargaining team and the county bargaining team that got the contract resolved,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, county director of human resources.
“The AFSCME bargaining team represented their members well and I specifically commend Lamar “Woody” Lewis for taking the lead on the AFSCME bargaining team in the 11th hour of negotiations after the abrupt and unfortunate passing of long-standing AFSCME President Joe Gariffo,” he continued.
Salary increases average 2.3 percent over the term of the contract, Lindsay said. Annual increase will be: 3.5 percent for employees earning $20,000 to $34,999; 2.5 percent for employees earning $35,000 to $44,999; 2 percent for employees earning $45,000 to $54,999; 1.75 percent for employees earning $55,000 to $64,999 and 1.5 percent for employees earning over $65,000.
At the contract’s end there will be a six-month salary freeze.
New starting salary was increased to $27,500 from $26,930.
Several revisions were made to the Health Benefit Program in order to reduce costs to employees and the county and to prepare for the fast-approaching “Cadillac Tax,” Lindsay added.
According to a Cigna fact sheet, “The Cadillac Tax is an excise tax scheduled to take effect in 2018 to reduce health care usage and costs by encouraging employers to offer plans that are cost-effective and engage employees in sharing in the cost of care. It is a 40 percent tax on employers that provide high-cost health benefits to their employees.”
The union agreed to move into a health benefit plan that would “significantly reduce health care costs, but still provide a premium plan that our employees are accustomed to having,” Lindsay continued.
A worker’s compensation provision was revised to limit the pay an employee would receive during a workers’ compensation leave of absence to the statutory amount. This was reduced from a sliding scale that often resulted in employees earning more during a leave of absence than when working, he said.