County, employee union agree to cut pay increases

By Jeff Pope

Published Monday, March 30, 2009 | 3:59 p.m.

Updated Monday, March 30, 2009 | 4:30 p.m.

Clark County has reached a tentative agreement with the union representing its employees to reduce pay increases to avoid “drastic budget reduction measures,” including layoffs and scaled-back services, both sides announced today.

The Service Employees International Union agreed to reduce its cost of living allowance increase from 3 percent to 1 percent and reduce the top range of merit raises by 1 percent for one year.

The deal is dependent upon union members voting in favor on April 3.

Based on member feedback, SEIU Nevada President Al Martinez said, he expects the deal to be approved.

“The economy is certainly not getting any better and when we look at the numbers, the numbers don’t look very promising,” he said. “Layoffs can happen and when the word was mentioned, we knew we had to do something about it. These are tough times and we want to do our part.”

The tentative deal would extend the current contract, which expires in 2010, by a year but allows the sides to renegotiate some financial details next year.

By renegotiating now, Commissioner Rory Reid said, both sides hope to avoid drastic budget cuts and the reduction of services in the county and at the University Medical Center.

Reid said the contract is the last step to avoiding job losses but does not rule out the possibility of layoffs.

“Nobody knows what the future will bring for sure,” he said. “We’re in a very difficult economy. We’re not sure what’s going to happen at the state legislature. We did not make any guarantees.”

The county already has eliminated salary increases for county and UMC management employees, frozen nearly 400 open positions and restricted travel and overtime hours. The county expects to save $4.9 million from its general fund budget and $4.7 million from the UMC budget under the new agreement.