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Monday, July 6, 2009
Nutter To Freeze Pay Increases for City Workers

Mayor Nutter is today freezing salary increases, including pay step increases or longevity increases, for union workers and non-represented civil service employees.

The move – which the city said could save about $80 million* over five years if it stays in place – comes a week after contracts expired for the city’s four municipal unions. While the city is legally required to maintain the “status quo” of employee compensation during negotiation, the state Supreme Court has ruled that status quo does not include pay increases.

“If you got it, you got it and if you didn’t you didn’t,” said Managing Director Camille Barnett this afternoon. She said the administration was not making a negotiating move, but rather trying to achieve much-needed savings.

Workers were notified of the move through a mass email. Barnett said the city was not in a financial position to continue paying pay increases. The city has said they need to get $125 million in savings from union contracts over the next four years. The city’s contract proposals to the four unions include no salary increases of any kind.

Under civil service rules, employees are hired in a pay range with four or five increasing salaries, or steps. Workers typically move up one step each year until they hit the maximum pay in their range. Some union workers are also awarded a differing amount of “longevity pay,” a salary bump after they hit a certain amount of service – like 10 or 20 years.

The city today said that any future step increases or longevity increases would be determined by contract negotiations for the almost 20,000 union-represented employees. For the 870 non-represented civil service employees, Mayor Nutter will dictate when the city can afford to start paying salary increases again.

* The Nutter administration earlier said the savings would be about $49 million over five years, which we originally reported. They later amended that number to $80 million.
 

Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 3:02 PM  Permalink | 55 comments
Comments   
Posted 03:25 PM, 07/06/2009
CrayzeeGuy
Did he propose freezing City Council pay too?
Posted 03:25 PM, 07/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
This seems like a basic requirement, and long overdue. I hope it applies to Council as well.
Posted 03:35 PM, 07/06/2009
sincerity
not latoya and goode jr. they deserve a big raise. i'll pay higher taxes so they can get a raise. such fine employees, we don't want to lose them. they could be making millions elsewhere and they work for our city for so much less. i feel blessed!
Posted 03:37 PM, 07/06/2009
2012 ~ Ron Paul
Drop in the bucket.
Posted 03:38 PM, 07/06/2009
nebulus
How about he rolls back his pay, councils pay, and his appointees pay to the 2003 level (pre-automatic COLA) and then apply the increases that were negotiated with the unions. Just for parity sake.
Posted 03:45 PM, 07/06/2009
KG071
"Did he propose freezing City Council pay too?" The question I have is, does Mayor Nutter have the authority too freeze City Council's pay? I don't think he does...you would think that since he and members of his staff are not taking the COLA (5%, I think)that maybe all of City Council would follow suit. Guess not. If that is the case, then citizens of Phila. you need to remember which members did not take the COLA and, when it's time for re-election? Elect someone else. Get some "new blood" in Council. It's OK to do that. After all, all of these Council members were considered "new blood" at one point. So, out with the old and in with the new...if you all vote for the same old, same old, then you have no right to complain. None at all...
Posted 03:50 PM, 07/06/2009
ZOSO
Wow wee!
Posted 03:51 PM, 07/06/2009
irish3m
Sure hope City Council continues to get their raises after all they do work almost 9 months a year!
Posted 03:53 PM, 07/06/2009
spreadheadpa
Get the bums outta office!!! This what we get from a single party system. We reap, what we sow. Remember that in a election year!
Posted 04:02 PM, 07/06/2009
snjgwmc
Council is gonna say that they're elected officials, not city employees, and exempt from Nutter's freeze. They're "entitled."
Comment removed.
Posted 04:10 PM, 07/06/2009
JStocker
A step (albeit a small one) in the right direction.
Posted 04:11 PM, 07/06/2009
Chr
Gotta love this ballsy move by Nutter. Sure, the unions will hate him, but the regular working/voting folk will give him high marks for guts.
Comment removed.
Posted 04:15 PM, 07/06/2009
SayHello2MyLittleFriend
An immediate ban on DROP for EXISTING and future City Council members and a reduction in City Council staff should go along with this freeze. Oh yeah, fire "Latrine," Goode's girlfriend/employee/subordinate.
55 comments | View All Comments | View All By Latest
About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.

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Catherine Lucey
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