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.
Did he propose freezing City Council pay too?— CrayzeeGuy- This seems like a basic requirement, and long overdue. I hope it applies to Council as well.— CleanupPhilly
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- 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.— nebulus
- "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...— KG071
Wow wee!— ZOSO- Sure hope City Council continues to get their raises after all they do work almost 9 months a year!— irish3m
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!— spreadheadpa- Council is gonna say that they're elected officials, not city employees, and exempt from Nutter's freeze. They're "entitled."— snjgwmc
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- A step (albeit a small one) in the right direction.— JStocker
- 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.— Chr
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- 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.— SayHello2MyLittleFriend
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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