More than five months after the contracts for more than 900 county employees expired, the Human Services bargaining unit of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 829 is nearing a new three-year deal after the union’s largest bargaining unit ratified a tentative agreement this week.
Up for review at the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors’ Tuesday meeting, the tentative agreement includes a 4 percent cost of living adjustment effective March 24 and other cost of living and equity increases planned for the three-year term as well as longevity pay. Aside from starting dates for some wages hikes, the new contract is nearly identical to a memorandum of understanding reached in February between county officials and the union’s 10 other bargaining units, which included a 4 percent cost of living adjustment effective Feb. 24, according to a staff report.
Representing workers in the county’s Human Services Agency and making up more than half of the 1,700-member union, workers in the Human Services bargaining unit went on strike March 5 and March 6 after the group chose not to ratify the tentative agreement ratified by a majority of the union’s bargaining units and approved by county officials Feb. 26. The Human Services bargaining unit is comprised of employees in the Human Services Agency, County Health, the Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, according to a previous county press release.
Having started negotiations in July, the entire 1,700-member union was previously at an impasse with county officials over a previously-proposed three-year contract, which union members didn’t feel kept pace with the region’s rising cost of living. Workers have also expressed frustration with their current retiree health package, which some have said puts pressure on employees to bank their sick time so they have post-retirement health care and causes them to lose their sick leave if they don’t retire with the county.
The county and the union’s 10 bargaining units also agreed in February to form a labor-management committee to review the county’s existing retiree health benefits and recommend possible modifications.
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The salary and other changes are expected to increase the county’s costs by approximately $32.6 million over the three-year term, according to a staff report.
Increases in the county’s required payments to the San Mateo County Employees’ Retirement Association, or SamCERA, will be reflected in the actuarial assumptions in the association’s 2020 triennial study, which will be used to calculate the contribution rates for the 2021 fiscal year, according to the report.
The present value of future actuarial losses expected to accompany the changes is estimated at $12 million, according to a letter from SamCERA’s actuary Milliman. The letter estimated the total impact of the changes for the entire AFSCME membership is $24 million, which will materialize over the years as the salary increases occur.
Supervisors meet 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 26, at 400 County Center, Redwood City.
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