Newark City Attorneys
We are very pleased to announce that on December 3rd, we ratified the contract for the Newark City Attorneys Workers unanimously voted to ratify the Contract. This was a very difficult Contract to negotiate. The City is in the middle of layoffs and was not looking to be very generous.
One week before Thanksgiving we came to an agreement finally, and we think that this is a good and fair contract.
The features of the Contract are as follows:
The Contract is technically a 4 year agreement, however, it is really a complete agreement only through 2008. We have a 4 year agreement which begins on January 1, 2007, on all language with a wage and healthcare reopener after 2 years.
There is a wage package that provides for a new salary scale for attorneys in the Prosecutors office and the Law Department. That salary scale bases your compensation on years of experience practicing law. The first year of the Contract is an adjustment year, where attorneys are put on the right step of the salary scale. The second year of the contract, they move up a step which is a 3.5% increase in pay.
The Contract for Public Defenders provides for a 4% across the board increase January 1, 2007 and a 3.5% across the board increase January 1, 2008. As a result, we succeeded in increasing the first year offer for public defenders from the 3.5% each step
There are no healthcare take backs in this Contract. Health Care benefits are in tact. . This contract has no healthcare concessions.
There has been a long and lengthy fight over hours. We have an agreement that attorneys will work a fixed work week of 37.5 hours a week – but with the exception of 2 hours of evening meetings a month – the City will have to permit attorneys to flex their time if they work over the 37.5 hours. They will solicit volunteers prior to involuntarily assigning prosecutors to work night court.
The Contract has a Just Cause provision giving our attorneys Job Security. The City has violated the Just Cause provision repeatedly but signed yet another contract with it in it. The violation of the Just Cause provision is going to arbitration soon, and hopefully this issue will finally be resolved.
We reduced the Grievance Procedure from a 5 step procedure to a 4 step procedure.
Despite the fact that this is a new administrative, the City is notoriously slow at getting the raises in and the retroactive money paid. We are going to be very assertive about pressing to get the City Council to vote on it, and then following up to try to get money as soon as possible.