After voting down an initial tentative agreement as well as the City’s Last, Best and Final offer, IBEW 1245 members in the City of Redding’s maintenance unit have ratified a new three-year agreement, which was subsequently approved by the Redding City Council in open session in early December.
The agreement, which was reached through mediation, includes a 3% wage adjustment, effective in the first pay period after City Council approval; a 2% wage adjustment effective in the first full pay period after July I, 2020; and a 0.5% wage adjustment effective in the first full pay period after July I, 2021.
To officially recognize that employees in the unit may be required to perform confined space entry and rescue as part of their normal job duties, the City will provide a half percent (0.5%) wage adjustment for all of the IBEW Maintenance classifications to recognize confined space responsibilities (this is included in the 3% adjustment in the first pay period).
To each IBEW Maintenance classification specification, the following language will be added:
Must be able to enter and work in confined spaces, participate in the Confined Space Program, and perform confined space rescue if needed. To the extent an employee hired by the City prior to the effective date of this Agreement on [insert date] has a disability or medical condition that may impact their ability to undertake such confined space duties, the City agrees to engage in a good faith disability interactive process to determine what reasonable accommodations can be provided to the employee. To the extent such disability or medical condition following the interactive process is determined to preclude the employee from undertaking such duties, the employee will be exempt from such duties. For job classifications not currently providing confined space duties prior to the effective date this Agreement on [insert date], the City agrees to provide the Union 30 days notice of the assignment of such duties.
All tentative agreements already reached on City Proposals and Union Proposals to date were included in the meidated agreement, as were the terms contained within the Union’s Counter to City Proposal #16A, which matched the City’s September 18, 2019 Last, Best, and Final Offer City Proposal #16A. The only modification was to have the implementation of the 87.5%/12.5% Group Health and Welfare Insurance Plan take place in Calendar Year 2020 and the 85%/15% Group Health and Welfare Insurance Plan take place in Calendar Year 2022. All other open City Proposals and Union Proposals where a tentative agreement has not been reached were withdrawn, and the union’s Unfair Practice Charge pending before the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) was dismissed.
Other highlights of the agreement are the creation of a new classification titled Baler Operator, within the Solid Waste department. The wages for the position were set at the current Truck Driver II + 5%, and the classification will require a California Class B license. Also, in the Solid Waste department was a 2.5% additional incentive to the Transfer Station Operator assigned to the Green Waste/Compost or Floor duties with a minimum of four hours worked in the assignment. The City also agreed to creating a new Working Supervisor classification in the Parks department titled Working Supervisor – Arborist, with wages equal to the other working supervisors.
The City agreed to changes to the Airport classification names (no change in compensation) and reclassified them as: Airport Operations and Maintenance Worker I, Airport Operations and Maintenance Worker II, Working Supervisor – Airport Operations and Maintenance. This change reclassifies and Y-rates one of our members into the Airport Operations and Maintenance Worker II classification from Building & Facilities Mechanic. Also, this change added more updated language to the classification’s description regarding what these members do on a regular basis.
There was a change to the rest period language adding the following trigger for a rest period. If an employee has worked for six hours or more at the overtime rate during the 16-hour period immediately preceding the beginning of the employee’s regular work hours on a workday for an emergency call out, and the overtime event ends between the hours of 2:00 a.m., and 7:00 a.m., the employee shall be entitled to a rest period of eight consecutive hours on the completion of such overtime work.
There were increases to the certification pay for Water Leadworker classification and above who hold certification of 4, and 5 in Water Distribution, and Wastewater Collection Maintenance Worker classification and above who hold grade 3, and 4 in Wastewater Collection.
Per the City’s request, the mediated agreement will eliminate the first step of the following classifications: Solid Waste Truck Driver I, Airport Maintenance Worker, Convention Center Maintenance Worker, Public Works Maintenance Worker, Meter Reader, and Mechanic I. The City will also have the option to extend the promotional probation for the position of Working Supervisor for an additional six months with prior notification to the Union and prior to the end of the initial six month probation period.
The Unit agreed to pick up an additional 1.275% of the Normal cost of CalPERS effective January 1, 2020. They also agreed to a PARS contribution of 2.08%, equal to 50% of normal cost at the time of agreement. Effective Calendar Year 2020, employees participating in the Group Health and Welfare insurance will see an increase of 2.5%, and again in Calendar Year 2022 for a total of 5% increase on the premium share, bringing the total co-share ratio to 85/15. We also agreed to pick up an additional $10 co-payment for the one-month supply for Brand only, and $30 for the 90 days’ supply for Brand only for prescription coverage.
Smaller highlights of the agreement were an increase of $100 (total $650/$475) to the tool allowance, and an increase of $100 (total $250) to the boot allowance, as well as codification of the boot allowance in the agreement.
Along with these, were several housekeeping changes, as well as non-economic changes agreed to, that will be incorporated.
The bargaining committee was comprised of maintenance unit members Chris Fleming, Adam Froeber, Darrell McDaniel, John Moore, Luke Pearson, and David Williams, with support from recently retired IBEW 1245 Senior Assistant Business Manager Ray Thomas and myself.
–Dominic McCurtain, IBEW 1245 Business Rep