Palomar College employees get 4.5 percent raise, maintain benefits

By: NOELLE IBRAHIM - Staff Writer
Negotiations continue for faculty members | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 12:25 AM PST ∞

SAN MARCOS -- Two months after negotiations soured between Palomar College's nonteaching employee labor union and the administration, trustees approved a new compensation package for those employees Tuesday night that includes a 4.53 percent pay increase and paid health care benefits.

"We've very pleased as a district to have worked out this agreement ... and that we did so with courteous, collegial discourse," said John Tortarolo, Palomar's vice president of human resources and the district's lead negotiator.

The union for the nonteaching employees -- also called classified employees -- had previously threatened to file an unfair labor practice charge with the state before the beginning of this semester, accusing the administration of not negotiating in good faith and treating its members as second-class citizens.

District officials denied the charges.

The union didn't file the complaint when negotiations turned positive, said Neill Kovrig, president of the Council of Classified Employees, which represents about 400 of the college's nonteaching employees, such as groundskeepers, secretaries and academic department assistants.

The union, which operates under an employee handbook instead of a contract, is still negotiating nonmonetary policy adjustments to the handbook and could still file a complaint if the discussions break down again, Kovrig said.

"It's prepped and we're waiting," he said. "There's still a lot of little things on the table and we don't want to see those things pushed off."

On Tuesday, trustees approved a 4.53 percent cost-of-living adjustment provided for by the state for 2007-08, retroactive to July 1, 2007, and agreed to cover all health care benefits, including medical, dental, vision and life insurance, through this school year.

Though the cost of health care benefits has increased by more than $3,000 per employee each year for the last three years, trustees also ratified an agreement to continue to pay 100 percent of health care costs for 2007-08 for permanent employees, said Tortarolo. Health care benefits cost the district more than $18,000 per year, per permanent employee, he said.

"It's a very large commitment on the district's part," he said. "(But) it's important to our employees."

Kovrig said while the union is happy with the agreement, it does not want to see benefits chipped away in the future.

The deal also included a 1.58 percent pay increase for 2006-07 -- an addition to the 5.92 percent cost-of-living adjustment previously granted to all Palomar employees in December 2006. That extra hike, retroactive to July 1, 2006, makes for a total pay increase of 7.5 percent for 2006-07. The percentage was based on surveys that compared salaries of employees at Palomar with those of 15 other colleges of similar size and enrollment in the state, said Tortarolo.

"It's extremely competitive," he said, adding that the raise is equal to the highest pay increase employees got at the comparable colleges.

A similar proposal for 2006-07 was made to the college's faculty labor union, which has yet to settle on a contract after 16 months at the bargaining table. Last week, the faculty union filed unfair labor practice charges with the state, blaming the administration for stalled negotiations.

Since then, both sides had "a productive meeting last Thursday and that's all I can say about that," said Tortarolo.

However, faculty union President Shannon Lienhart Tuesday night said the union is still frustrated.

"You make the union work so hard, for so little, for so long," Lienhart told the board.

Board President Darrell McMullen said he hoped that settling with classified employees would encourage both sides to "put this whole thing to bed."

-- Contact staff writer Noelle Ibrahim at (760) 740-3517 or nibrahim@nctimes.com.