Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers during a Feb. 13 City Council Finance Committee meeting said the city’s best opportunity for controlling health insurance costs is by working with employees on adopting healthy lifestyles.Bruce Geiselman, special to cleveland.com
LAKEWOOD, Ohio – City Council’s Finance Committee is recommending the full council approve new collective bargaining agreements with firefighters and paramedics that would grant pay raises in each of the three years.
The committee Monday night endorsed agreements granting 3 percent raises in 2017 and 2 percent raises in each of the next two years.
The percentage increases are in line with what other communities are granting workers, city officials said.
These are the first labor contracts to come before council and likely will be similar to contracts negotiated with other bargaining units.
“We have worked diligently and cost-effectively over the past several months to negotiate fair and consistent terms and conditions of employment with all seven of our unions that promote labor harmony, equitable wages, strength and flexibility in our workforce, and a sharing of the risk of rising health care costs,” Law Director Kevin Butler told council in a letter presenting the firefighter and paramedic agreements. “These agreements, if ratified, would be in line with the 2017 budget legislation you have adopted.”
Firefighter and paramedic salaries vary by position, grade, rank and years of service. For example, wages in 2017 for a first-year Grade III firefighter would be a little more than $50,000, while a Grade I firefighter with 22 years of service would receive more than $70,000. Captains and assistant fire chiefs earn more. The average paramedic salary for 2017 would be more than $61,000, while the average paramedic supervisor salary would top $75,000, according to the contract.
The city also has agreed to keep employee health insurance contributions at the same percentage for the next two years, with employees with family coverage paying a maximum of 10 percent of total premium costs and employees with single coverage paying 13 percent. There would be a cap of $180 per month for families and $125 per month for singles.
The city and unions plan to form a joint committee to look at ways of controlling future health care costs, possibly offering insurance discounts for workers adopting healthy lifestyles.
City officials said employees adopting healthy lifestyles, such as stopping smoking or losing weight, could reduce health care costs. The most effective way of reducing health care costs is to encourage employees to become healthier, Mayor Michael Summers said.
The city and unions will reopen negotiations concerning employee health insurance costs for the third year of the contract.
The entire City Council is expected to vote on whether to approve the new contracts at either a Feb. 21 or March 6 meeting. The firefighters and paramedics unions already have approved the contracts.
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