Las Vegas’ largest city employees union, city reach tentative pact

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010 | 10:48 a.m.

Most Las Vegas city employees would go to a 38-hour, four-day work week under a tentative labor concession agreement Las Vegas city officials announced this morning.

The proposed agreement between the city and the Las Vegas City Employees Association, the city's largest employee union, is designed to save between $20 million and $24 million during the next 2 1/2 years.

The agreement, "is a major step in helping the city address the estimated $47 million budget shortfall it is facing in the next fiscal year," the city's statement said this morning.

Val Sharp, CEA vice president, said this morning the 1,400 CEA members will take a vote on the concessions during a meeting from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 19.

"The members have the right to vote it yea or nay. Based on our discussions with the city, we are encouraging them to support the proposal," Sharp said this morning.

The soonest time the city council could take up the matter would be at its Oct. 20 meeting. If the agreement is ratified by the union and approved by the council, Las Vegas would join Henderson and North Las Vegas in going to a four-day work week.

Sharp said some necessary 24-hour operations, such as the city's jail and its water treatment facilities, won't be affected, but about 85 percent of the city would be closed on Fridays.

Among the major points of the agreement:

• Members of the Las Vegas City Employees would go to a 38-hour work week of four 9.5-hour days, starting in January.

• Employees would be paid for 38 hours a week, rather than for 40 hours a week. The city would also have the flexibility to return to a 40-hour workweek when needed.

• The city would close its offices the week of Dec. 26, 2010, amounting to a week of unpaid furlough for employees covered under the CEA agreement.

• Cost-of-living adjustments would be suspended for two years, starting in June 2011, and annual step increases will be suspended for two years starting in January 2011.

• Longevity pay would be frozen for two years, the city said.

The city's statement says it is working on plans to reduce service impacts to the public as a result of the shortened work week.

"The city will have the opportunity for expanded business hours Monday through Thursday, and will work as much as possible to not adversely impact citizens needing to do city business on Fridays," the city's statement says.

City Manager Betsy Fretwell said she was pleased about the CEA's representatives working with the city staff to reach a tentative agreement.

“This agreement achieves our goals of maintaining critical services, preserving the city’s fiscal integrity and saving jobs,” Fretwell said in a prepared statement

In the city's statement, Don King, president of the CEA, acknowledged that the agreement meant a sacrifice for city employees and their families.

“No one wants to see a reduction in pay, but we know this move will save a lot of money, and ultimately a lot of city jobs,” King said.

Last spring, members of the CEA decided not to make any concessions to the city.

At that time, members were presented with the last concession proposal in two stages. First they were asked if they wanted to make any changes and about 70 percent voted not to make any changes in the existing contract with the city, Sharp said.

He said that was based on public comments that were made by Mayor Oscar Goodman that made members unhappy about the city's attitude toward them, Sharp said.

Because of the first vote, the actual concession agreement was never brought up, he said.

Sharp said that in making the tentative concessions, the CEA negotiators were trying to resolve a classification compensation study done by the city that did not comply with the CEA contract.

Sharp said they also want to eliminate or reduce any outsourcing of classified jobs by the city.

Sharp said employees in the union are mostly those who are not firefighters or police officers.

"We are the street sweepers, we keeping the traffic lights working, we do the clerical stuff at the city, we handle the city municipal elections and we do all the functional maintenance items," he said.