HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County’s newest union contract with custodial, highway and maintenance employees sets higher starting salaries in an attempt to lure more applicants for vacant positions.
The new contract also adds 45 cents to the base hourly pay rate of current employees for 2023, as long as the employee has worked at least a year for the county as of Jan. 1, 2023. Those with less time will get a 1.5% increase for 2023.
As of Jan. 1, 2024, the annual increase is set at 2.5%, and as of Jan. 1, 2025, it’s 2.25%.
Director of Human Resources Katherine Swigart said the contract applies to as many as 29 positions, at full staffing, in the three departments represented by the Service Employees International Union.
The raises, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023, were accounted for in the county’s 2023 budget, she said.
Commissioners Bruce Erb, Laura Burke and Amy Webster voted Tuesday to approve the contract after Swigart outlined the details and related changes. They had no discussion Tuesday on the proposed contract, but in recent weeks, labor negotiations were identified as a reason for their executive sessions.
“Where this unit probably saw the most significant change was with the starting wages,” Swigart said Tuesday.
The SEIU contract has traditionally identified a starting hourly pay rate for six categories of employees, followed by an increase on the employee’s one-year anniversary.
“For the last two contracts, covering a total of six years, the (hiring) rate did not change while the one-year anniversary rate did,” Swigart said.
While the one-year anniversary rate was designed as an incentive for employees to remain with the county, Swigart said that changed as potential employees considered other jobs.
“It really wasn’t serving its purpose because I couldn’t get people in the door,” Swigart said.
Based on the new contract, the county’s starting hourly pay rates in 2023 will be $19.35 for auto mechanics, $18.48 for carpenters, $16.22 for custodians, $17.63 for laborers and $18.48 for maintenance technicians and vector control personnel, all of whom will be eligible for one-year anniversary increases.
In 2024, the starting pay rates increase again and those hired will be eligible for one-year anniversary increases.
Those hired in 2025, however, won’t be awarded one-year anniversary raises. But their starting hourly rates will be: $21.54 for auto mechanics, $20.56 for carpenters, $17.39 for custodians, $19.45 for laborers and $20.56 for maintenance technicians and vector control personnel.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.