Developmental Disabilities workers get pay hike

Revised contract gives 2 percent pay raise this year but no increases in 2010 and 2011.

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 11:16 PM Thursday, November 5, 2009

HAMILTON — Butler County commissioners unanimously approved a contract Thursday, Nov. 5, with the union representing caregivers working for Developmental Disabilities.

This breaks an impasse between county and the Professionals Guild of Ohio — which represents 75 agency employees, most of whom are direct care staff — after commissioners voted down the first proposed contract 2-1.

The revised contract includes a 2 percent pay raise this year, but does away with raises in 2010 and 2011 included in the first contract.

It also gives union members an additional day off starting in 2010 — which agency officials say other employees there already get — and allows them to accrue vacation days faster, starting in 2011.

“If raises weren’t going to be provided during certain periods, then employees needed to receive something else,” said union negotiator John Campbell-Orde.

Commission President Donald Dixon, who opposed the original contract along with Charles Furmon, called the revision “a good compromise.”

“I’d say we didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got a lot,” Dixon said, estimating the county’s savings at $80,000 per year. “They had come a long way from where they wanted to be.”

Commissioner Gregory Jolivette had sided with the union on the original contract, arguing Developmental Disabilities is levy funded and operating in the black, unlike the county general fund. But Dixon and Furmon said it was unfair to cut other offices and give out raises at that agency.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.

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