As labor negotiations with the City’s unions continue, Mayor Nutter froze salary increases for union workers and non represented civil service employees.

The move – which the city said can save an estimated $80 million over five years – comes a week after contracts expired for the city’s four municipal unions. It would affect two types of raises automatically awarded city workers for time served.

The city has never taken such a step, but officials say that a state Supreme Court ruling supports the move.

The ruling says that the city is legally required to maintain the “status quo” of employee compensation after a contract has expired if negotiations continue. But the court stipulates that the status quo does not include pay increases.

Whether such a freeze will remain in place for the 20,000 unionized workers will ultimately be determined by contract negotiations. The city said that as part of its effort to find $125 million in contract savings over five years, city negotiators were seeking new contracts with no raises of any kind.

Nutter will dictate when to change the pay-increase policy for the city’s 870 non-represented civil service employees.

Union leaders have come out publicly against the city’s decision, saying they would fight back.

Negotiations with DC 47 and blue-collar union AFSCME DC 33 are supposed to continue later this week. The police and fire contracts are settled through arbitration. That process has started for police and will kick off for fire in September.

Source: Daily News