News

Fla. County Starts Pay Negotiations with EMS Employee Union

Greg Stanley

08/21/2015

Aug. 21--Collier County officials started pay negotiations Thursday with their largest employee union.

A three-year labor deal with the county's nearly 200 paramedics, medevac pilots and EMTs will expire at the end of September. The two sides have been working on a new contract since April and have tentatively hashed out the bulk of the deal, including health care benefits, chain-of-command and grievance procedures.

But the county's emergency crews and administrators are still far apart on wages and hazard pay incentives.

Under the county's first offer, made across a board room table in a negotiation session, a large majority of the 193 Emergency Medical Services employees wouldn't see a raise under the contract. They would, however, get the same 1.5 percent pay bump as the rest of county employees if county commissioners approve an across-the-board wage adjustment in September, said Emergency Medical Services Chief Walter Kopka.

The county would also raise the starting salaries for entry-level paramedics-in-training and licensed paramedics by 3 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Those entry-level raises would affect less than a quarter of the department's workforce, said Greg Pacter, a vice president with the union.

"This is ... no," Pacter said. "We were hoping that their first offer would at least give back some of the raises that we gave away during the recession. This wasn't made in good faith."

To make it through the recession without any layoffs, the county's ambulance crews agreed to reopen their contract and give up 2 percent and 1 percent raises in consecutive years. The employees also gave up their incentive pay, which offered those who volunteered to work as field training officers or on hazardous material and flight evacuation crews a 10 percent bonus.

Last year, administrators agreed to bring back 1 percent bonuses as incentives for those who volunteered for the special duties. Under the county's current offer, those 1 percent bonuses would once again be cut and no incentives would be paid throughout the department.

"This is an evaluation of what we have and what we need," Kopka said. "A 1.5 percent raise isn't huge, but it's still climbing and next year it'll get better. The county has been slow and steady."

The department has three major pay grades: EMTS, who make between $40,000 and $65,000 a year, paramedics, who make $47,000 to $72,000 and hybrid firefighter paramedics, who earn $52,000 to $82,000.

Entry level jobs in Collier have always been relatively high, Pacter said. But advancement is slow.

"So we have people who have been here for four years or longer making the same amount as someone who was just hired," he said. "And this is what the county is trying to do again. They're increasing the starting pay, but they're not paying for experience."

The union hasn't yet made its counter offer. But with four straight years of rising property values in the county, including an expected 6.9 percent jump next year, it won't be enough to only raise entry-level pay, Pacter said.