The Greene County Board of Supervisors met yesterday in special session.

Representatives with AFSCME Local 3949 presented their proposal on behalf of the Greene County Sheriff’s office for the collective bargaining agreement to start July 1st.

The group proposed a 5% across-the-board increase in wages with each job classification to top out in five years.  The current contract has just the individual’s name and wages and an example was used that one person might make $30,000 while another makes $48,000 and there would be no way of closing that gap, so if the contract had its wage matrix top out in five years, that gap could be easier to close.

Another stipulation the Union wants concerns health insurance.  They are proposing that if the health insurance premiums increase by more than 15% in any year, that the county agrees to allow for an issuance of a “reason for proposal” to find a more cost-effective insurance provider.

As for holiday pay, the union would like to see an employee who works on the weekend of a holiday, but that holiday doesn’t fall on a weekend, like Labor or Memorial Day, then that person be paid holiday pay for Saturday and Sunday.

Another change proposed by the union is to have all vacation requests answered by the employer within five calendar days of the requested date if the request is made 30 days or more in advance.  If a vacation request is made in less than 30 days, the employer has 24 hours to answer the request.

And for grievance procedure, the union requests that the Grievant and Steward will be paid status during grievance meetings with management.

The County’s counter-proposal doesn’t make any changes to wages, health insurance, holidays, vacations or the grievance procedure.

The only changes the County is proposing to the current contract is changing the language for worker’s compensation to fit the updated state version and in regards to health insurance, making a change that the County will pay 100% of the premiums for a single person plan and paying 85% of a family plan.

The union’s agreement is for five-years, while the County’s is for one year.

The meeting ended in a closed session for negotiation between the two sides with a final decision to be made public at a Board of Supervisors meeting.