Healthcare concessions expected to net savings for county
After Schenectady County CSEA union members voted down the first proposed contract, a similar one was approved and passed unanimously by the County Legislature.
Union members approved a new 2-year contract for county employees of CSEA on Thursday, June 9, after a week-long voting period resulting in 292 in favor and 237 opposed. The Schenectady County Legislature unanimously approved the contract on Tuesday, June 14, during its regular meeting. The previous contract had expired on January 1, and the new contract will be effective until the end of 2012.
We had a very good cooperative relationship with our CSEA negotiating team, said County Attorney Christopher Gardner. `Overall, the cost of the contract is almost the same as the initial one that was voted down.`
Previously the union rejected a contract proposal in April by a larger margin than the current proposal passed by. Even if the contract’s cost is similar, union goals were met in the approved contract.
`The negotiating teams was able to soften the language related to new hires at Glendale who would be paying more for health insurance and would have had lower salaries,` said Therese Assalian, spokeswoman for the Capital Region CSEA, in an email. `This new tier will still exist, but the disparity between new and current employees is not as great as the previous offer.`
The new two-tier wage scales for new Glendale Nursing Home employees previously had employees coming in at 5 percent below current salaries, but now it will be 10 percent lower. The decrease in salaries is a result of the county removing night and weekend shift time accruals and shift differentials for new employees, which was in the rejected contract.
Another change was giving early retires a $300 annual health retirement savings account to help offset the copays, which were previously lower. Assalian said this was another important area the union wanted to address and was pleased to have accomplished.
`Every negotiation is a give and take and I particularly want to thank the CSEA for their willingness to consider and accept these healthcare concessions,` said Majority Leader Gary Hughes. `We are quite likely the only county in the state that has seen a year to year decrease. We were able to sustain that and in turn provide our county employees with a salary increase.`
Employees are receiving a 1.5 percent raise for each year, which Gardner said is at the core rate of inflation. The estimated savings for healthcare concessions totals over $1 million annually. Savings for 2011 though would be half the annual amount, because two of the four proposals from the county wouldn’t be effective until July 1.
`We negotiated this contract with the idea that Governor Como’s tax cap would go into effect,` said Gardner. `We think there is a good chance that we will actually reduce our costs even with the pay increases.`
Gardner said since 2007’s actual health care costs to 2011 budget healthcare costs the county has reduced spending by 4.2 percent. In 2007 the county spent $18.75 million on healthcare and the budgeted amount for this year is almost $17.8 million.
Jason Plank, a Schenectady resident, said he wasn’t sold on the idea that cost containment lead to healthcare savings and noted the reduction of county employees.
Former Chairwoman Susan Savage previously touted during 2011 budget talks that the county had reduced 200 non-mandated positions through attrition since 2007. The savings, she said, totaled $10 million.
Gardner touted how the county had become a model for other counties in the state regarding healthcare expenses.
`We are spending less per retiree, while most have seen double digit increases annually,` he said. `Schenectady County is probably the most proficient provider of healthcare services in the state of New York, because we spent a lot of time measuring outcomes, negotiating lower rates with drugs companies and our landmark Canadian drug program.“
