It sounded like a good idea at the time, many years ago. The Wayne County Sheriff’s office was losing deputies to adjoining and nearby police agencies offering higher wages. A recent trainee could earn as much as $10,000, or more by transferring to Monroe County agencies.
To stop the flow of new and older deputies, Wayne County, through contract negotiations, offered some wage incentives, coupled with a new 4/3 schedule. This offered deputies the opportunity of working 4 days with three days off.
The new incentive was an encouragement, but it led to an unforeseen major problem. In order to fill all the shifts required under the new scheduling, along with a shortage of deputies, road deputies built up a considerable amount of overtime.
The cost ran into the millions of dollars and became a major point in any new contract negotiations.
Complicating the contract that ran out in January 1, 2016, the Deputies ended their association with the union representing them. Two years passed where contract negotiations were in limbo. Finally, the officers joined with the Teamsters Local 118 Union and the real battle began.
Of course money was a main issue, but this too was clouded by an earlier provision in County contracts that incentivise employees for reaching certain employment dates with the County. The longer they worked for the County, their base pay increased by a certain percentage. After 5 years it was 1%, 10 years 3.5%, all the way up to 10% after 23 years. Contract negotiations became brutal as some took the battle to social media, turning on and making personal remarks Back in May, Wayne County, the Wayne County Sheriff, and Teamsters Local 118 concluded negotiations for a six-year collective bargaining agreement for the County’s deputy sheriffs bargaining unit covering the period of January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2021.
Read more from the Times of Wayne County
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