Repository staff report

CANTON: Union employees at the Stark County 911 Call Center must pay higher health insurance contributions during the next two years and will not receive a pay increase for three consecutive years.

A state conciliator brought in to resolve the conflicts in contract negotiations between Stark County officials and the union representing the 17 fulltime, part-time and on-call county 911 operators ruled last month that employees must pay 6 percent of their medical insurance premium this year and 8 percent next year. The employees, represented by the Fraternal Order of Police, had paid 5 percent toward their insurance with a monthly cap of $65 for family coverage and $32.50 for single coverage.

The new contract, which expires June 30, 2013, does not contain a monthly cap. It also does not include pay increases.

Operators will continue to be paid the same $12.26 an hour that they first received in 2010.

The conciliator, whose ruling is final and binding, did grant union employees who work at least 32 hours a week an additional eight hours of personal leave a year on top of the eight hours they already receive.

Employees also now can earn more hours of vacation sooner and full-time employees with at least 20 years on the job will get 240 hours of vacation a year. In the previous contract, employees with 25 or more years with the agency received 200 hours of vacation time a year.

In September, the union rejected a fact finder’s report that increased the employees’ health care contributions from 5 percent of the premium to 6 percent, froze vacation accrual, personal leave time, holiday pay and longevity pay and did not require minimum staffing levels. County commissioners had accepted that report.

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