Similar to CSEA Terms
PEF Gets 13% Hike And 'Location' Boost

By REUVEN BLAU

The Public Employees Federation Feb. 5 reached a tentative settlement with the Spitzer administration that provides 13 percent in raises over four years, and more than doubles the location pay for employees assigned to the downstate area.

KENNETH BRYNIEN: 'A fair deal.'

The proposed agreement with the state's second-largest public-employee union is consistent in its cost to the state with the Civil Service Employees Association contract negotiated last October.

Raise Details

PEF's tentative agreement, which would run from April 2, 2007 to April 1, 2011, must still be ratified by the union's more-than 58,000 members in the professional, scientific and technical unit of the state workforce.

PEF members would receive a 3-percent raise retroactive to April 2, 2007. The proposed contract also includes two more 3-percent hikes effective April 1, 2008 and April 1, 2009 and a 4-percent raise on April 1, 2010.

Based on the agreement, effective April 1 the annual downstate location pay differential would increase to $1,850, up from $1,302. That figure would jump to $3,026 this Oct. 1. The Mid-Hudson adjustment would increase to $1,000 on April 1 and to $1,513 on Oct. 1.

The deal also includes some "modest" increases in members' health-care costs, according to the state. The basic medical deductible will go from $225 per person to $250. Co-pays for emergency room visits and hospital outpatient surgeries will increase by $10. Some of those hikes were offset, however, by several health-care benefit enhancements for specific procedures and new treatments and tests, PEF officials said.

'Fair Contract'

The agreement contains several other enhancements, including a realignment of the salary schedule in April 2010, which raises the maximum pay for employees in state grades 19-25 to levels paid to other similar units.

The proposed contract also includes a $1,000 increase in April 2010 in the job rate of employees in grades 26 through 37. In addition, the state has agreed to enhancements to the vision plan benefit, as well as $600,000 to study the creation of a state fund as a means to provide improved dental and vision benefits while also saving money for the state.

The tentative pact must first be approved by the union's executive board, which has scheduled a special meeting Feb. 20.

"This contract is fair and meets the needs of our members," said PEF President Ken Brynien in a statement.