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
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55 comments
Did he propose freezing City Council pay too?
This seems like a basic requirement, and long overdue. I hope it applies to Council as well.
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!
Drop in the bucket.
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.
"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...
Wow wee!
Sure hope City Council continues to get their raises after all they do work almost 9 months a year!
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!
Council is gonna say that they're elected officials, not city employees, and exempt from Nutter's freeze. They're "entitled."
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A step (albeit a small one) in the right direction.
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.
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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.
Yes considering residents are LOSING their jobs and/or taking CUTS to salaries and benefits let alone freezes.
Lowell, nice.
I know they froze wages at my workplace this year. But for Nutter to say it saves x amount over 5 years is an insult. Most people understand the economy is preventing them from getting a raise this year, but telling workers not to expect a raise for five years will hurt morale.
If we eliminated non-essential personnel (ie, a certain Ms. Bryant), it would be a step in the right direction.
I think he should look at his own department and city council. Some city employees havent received a raises in two years but the taxes and everything else goes up But the almighty and council get a 5 % raise. THEY ALL NEED TO BE VOTED OUTTTTTTTTTT
Yup it's fair. I work for an U.S. owned international corporation and they announced back in January there would be no raises for anyone (i'm sure that didn't include the good ole boys on the executive board.) If I can't get an annual salary increase, why the heck should anyone else...union or otherwise?
It's a start, and yes, City Council should do something voluntarily to show the stuff their made of. Maybe a write-in campaign saying how we would not re-elect the next go around unless they give something up.
I love this. Some would argue, they're lucky to still have jobs. So what if no raise this year? I agree with everyone else, this should apply to City Council as well.
The city hasn't done what it needed to do in years to control costs or reign in spending. Nutter included. The BRT is a fright fest, there is no AVI on assessments, so that money is forfeited. There's no collection of overdue revenue like property taxes or forfeit bail. If city employees want raises, they're going to have to be advocates for responsible, responsive city government, including making cuts to waste and redundancy, as well as advocating for better collections, assessments, and accountability. The city employees and their unions are complicit.
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Hatters is right -- the city has no contract, and is now an at-will employer. The city can say "we are done negotiating" and start firing city employees. There are probably whole departments that are just redundant in this climate that can go. Philly city government is twice the size it needs to be. Every city employee that didn't get a raise should be looking for new work, because what is coming is not going to be a freeze in raises.
BRAVO. nice first step.. now, how about a PAY CUT for Mayor "McCheese" Nutter and city council?
Get the DROP money (already illegally paid out) back from Council and we could save 5 million a year more! Nutter is a clueless clown who have to get up in front of crowds at 4th of July celebrations and crow while cutting back services and bending over for council. GET HIM OUT-A-HERE!
The city does not exist to just employ people. It's not an employment office that hires your otherwise unemployable relatives. That whole mindset of patronage work for votes has to go, because there is no money for it anymore, and there won't be ever again.
IT'S ABOUT TIME FOR A BOLD ACTION LIKE THIS
Nutter is doing the job he was hired for -- to get the best deal for the taxpayers equally. That means if he can hire contract employees to do the work, so be it. He has a fiduciary responsibility to hire for the best price the highest qualified people. Rarely do city employees and that concept collide.
Are you people all crazy???? You are taking out your anger at your inept city government on the regular workers? I am a teacher in Baltimore Maryland right now (having relocated from the Philly area) and I can tell you that when my bills increase every year I need that salary step increase. Honestly the last 3 years it has barely been enough to cover my raise in rent, utilities, and gas. I have not really been given a true raise the 3 years I have worked for Baltimore. I know there are many city workers, including teachers, who just collect a pay check. I get very frustrated when I am there 2-3 hours after school every day, doing extra things to help students pass their state tests, and other teachers have just given up and want to stay on to collect pay. However, if you start doing things like this, the good workers will leave and go to districts that will still compensate us at least fairly. I realize I will never be rich as a teacher, but I shouldn't have to live like a pauper either. I have to pay 400 dollars every month for my student loans from undergrad at Penn State and Graduate work at Marymount. I can not afford some of the plans that I know many cities are thinking about. Baltimore is in the same position Philly is right now. Our contract expired this year and if Baltimore does the same, I probably will have to take a job out in Carroll County where I live. I do not want to leave, the students in the inner city need teachers that care very much, but the idea that I should have to pay for bad government policies is not fair to me either. Some of you need to think before you let your anger at a few allow you to support policies that punish the wrong people.
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Freezing salaries is not a "ballsy" move...when you are "freezing" salaries of the Mayor's staff at levels substantially higher than those same positions commanded in the prior Administration, on top of all of the new positions created.
And, in anticipation that there will be those who say that the incredibly high quality of personnel working for Nutter justifies higher salaries, I think time has told that the "best and the brightest" were not actually that great or that bright after all. A number of them were brought on for the same reason past Administration officials were hired: not skill sets or abilities, but who they know. Patronage politics again, but on a more personal level.
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Why should the employees give up anything? This is another scare tactic-no money, we're so broke,blah,blah,blah. There is money, the unions should fight for their workers and get those much needed raises, all your bills are going up , You are going to accept no raise? These politicians in the meantime are still looking out for themselves and their friends. Don't accept this bulls---! Where is organized labor ???
One other note: Barnett's comment that "if you got it, you got it and if you didn't, you didn't" is obscene. You lead by example, and at least one City employee was hired with non-restricted funds less than three weeks ago for $100,000 a year despite a supposed "hiring moratorium." How many others have been hired since the "moratorium"? I assume what Ms. Barnett meant to say was "if you got it, you got it, and you can expect to continue getting it. If you didn't, you wouldn't be getting anything anyway."
one term or two, the guys got guts...hat's off to the managing director even tho she has only the copied 311 program to her credit
EVA9601 - organized labor is dead - and should be. If you dont like your job, get some ba""s and leave. Why are union members so important? This is what happens when you live off of your fellow taxpayers. Why don't you go around your neighborhood knocking on doors and tell your neighbors you want them to pay more taxes to support lazy union workers
wonder if he is freezing his police detail's pay and overtime? Have you seen the entourage he travels with? On second thought, maybe he needs them to protect him from the Unions.
If you complain about this you are lucky you have a job in this economy!!!!!I am unemployed!!! There should be zero complaints in this economy!!
Organized labor is what ultimately built the middle class in this country. We would all be making the wages that an illegal immigrant makes were it not for unions. The perception that governments or big business or even small business would pay a living wage is flawed. Look only to Walmart who pays employees dirt and then tells them to apply for Medical assistance (welfare) which is supported by wages paid courtesy of the efforts made by unions over the years.
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Should have been done a long time ago. Lots of waste .
What took the city so long? This is well overdue!
Philly Democrats=Failure
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President O'Bama and Mayor Nutter are both victims of their predecessors. Their planned escape routes could not differ more however. While President O'Bama feels he can spend his way out of the crisis, Mayor Nutter has chosen the more sensible route; save, trim, and prioritize. This is not popular, but some of America's greatest leaders became so because they made the decisions others were too afraid to make. I do agree with earlier posts that City Council should be a part of this, in fact, they should be clammering to do so in the public eye...that sort of leadership would go a long way (remember that scene in Glory, when Col. Shaw ripped up his monthly stipend, in support of his soldiers?) Mayor Nutter's leadership has one flaw that I see. He is guilty of being too diplomatic. He is attempting to hold everyone accountable. The truth is, some city employees, divisions, and services are more important than others. I am glad he closed some of the pools. Although they create a great deal of fun, education and respite for the masses, they are not a nescessity. They are a huge waste of resources, i.e., salary, water, and insurance fees. The effect this budget crisis should have is on schools, but not in the matter that you think. We should see a surge in the amount of retention in public schools. In this economy, you need to have as much training as possible. You need to be a dynamic candidate. Mayor Nutter's influence will not be revealed for at least 4 years. I hope he can continue to make such difficult choices, and I hope the city sees what he is attempting to do for it, not to it!
discuss this and other topics on speakphilly.com
The city workers get two increase then. The one that's in the contract and one on their anniversary? I want to work for the city. We only get raises once a year where I work, and a small increase at that.
hey managing director camille barnett how about u put your money where your mouth is?? If you really care abaout taxpayers give back the 275,000 you stole fro dc ?donate it to the pools nutter shut down and oh not to mention you only worked one year for that isnt this country great that had to abide by your contract but if its not you you dont want to abide with the unions contract god bless this great land when on one hand you can rob the taxpayers but on the other you want to save them money.Oh alos give back the 50000 u got for moving expenses that will open alot of pools
Please tell me you idiots that agree with nutter and the doctor are are not from the city u have to be transplant suburbanites that know what we need.We have been through the good,the bad and the ugly with this great city for many years and who always are the ones that sacrafice.The city worker.we work for way less pay than the average the trade off was job security and benifits well the transplant doctor found a way to circumvent the contract and have laid off there was a no lay off claus in our contract,now you found another way while we try and work without a contract you start throwing salt on the wounds.Go back to 1992 when our cute rendell begged for help.did the citizens step up to the plate only the city workers did and we got nothing back we gave up.Well guess what we are not giving up anything and you will surpised how we stick together on this contract.The big RAT will find its way to specific venues.Playing at a movie near you !!!!
Cleanupphilly check your facts. There are state laws that cover labor relations for municipal employees. When a contract expires, the city does not become an employee at will. The terms of the expired contract remain in place until a new one is negotiated by both parties.
History, your analysis is flawed. First of all, Obama's plan is vastly different from the Mayor's because Obama is allowed to run a deficit into the trillions of dollars. Nutter on the other hand is constrained by the law requiring him to present a balanced budget. Second, Nutter is not being diplomatic. As usual, he is picking the low-hanging fruit. Rather than fire some of the redundant, overpaid academics he's hired (along with their expensive staffs)he's actually maintained their pay (that cut they took last year has been replaced by their COLAs this year - the same one's he's asking city employees to forgo). He's also played a giant shell game with programs he wants, taking them out from under his office and either putting them somewhere else or making them independent. Then he brags about cutting his own budget and telling people to follow his example and tighten their belts. He's already been stonewalled by the other organizations he's attacked - Council and the BRT, but over which he has no control whatsoever. His pedantic bleating was correctly ignored - while there may be some meat to the call to reform these organizations, his knee-jerk hyperbolic attacks are not productive, nor are they "diplomatic." Nutter should have sat down with the Unions – before telling them it was his way or the highway – explained the situation and asked them to come up with an offer that everyone could live with. He’s completely jumped the shark by freezing salaries, and now negotiations are going to be much more difficult.
I think many would agree that unions were indeed instrumental in building this country, but the conditions/environments of the past are certainly not prevalent today. I think what some are saying here is that unions today are not nearly as necessary as they were years ago when there were a lot less govt. regulations and protection.
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