New Firefighter & DPW Contracts Feature Changes on Compensation

New contracts between the town and the unions representing firefighters and Department of Public Works employees will include changes designed to reduce layoffs in both departments.

Town Administrator Jim Gildea said the changes, which include changing the way holiday pay is paid to firefighters, increased furlough days for DPW workers and a reduction in firefighter holiday pay saved jobs in the current budget cycle.

Gildea said the firefighters have agreed to two changes to the holiday pay part of their compensation package. This is the pay firefighters receive for working on holidays. He said they will have the funds paid out during the course of the year, instead of being paid in one lump sum at the end of the year. He said this will keep from the larger payout and also assist firefighters by raising their base salaries a bit during the year.

Police officers took the holiday pay schedule change starting in 2009.

In terms of holiday pay, Gildea said firefighters agreed to take a reduction in the amount of holiday pay by 70-percent. He said this was done in an effort to save firefighter layoffs. He said the 70-percent reduction equals out to $3,000 per firefighter in town.

In the DPW, Gildea said the union took five unpaid furlough days for workers and gave up a third of the overtime pay in order to save jobs.

Both departments have also taken salary freezes for a year.

The Town Council is in the process of formalizing the agreements signed with the unions in the spring.

"Our people thought of the people on the bottom," Gildea said of the concessions won from the two unions in the new contracts.