Lamont defends pay hikes, bonuses for state employees
Gov. Ned Lamont is defending the salary hikes and bonuses included in tentative agreements with more than 40,000 unionized state employees as key to recruiting and retaining a talented workforce ahead of a decision by the General Assembly later this month on whether to approve the deal.
“We wanted to do everything we can to encourage more of our state employees to stay with the state of Connecticut,” Lamont said Tuesday afternoon at an online press conference with reporters.
The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, which represents about 43,000 state workers in 15 unions, recently ratified the new contracts, which include raises and bonuses. State officials on Tuesday released the estimated cost of the new contracts to be $287 million in fiscal year 2022 and $403 million in fiscal year 2023.
If approved by state lawmakers, workers will receive 2.5 percent general wage increases, retroactive to July 1, 2021, in each of the next two fiscal years. In the fourth year of the contracts, the parties will meet again to negotiate on wages.
The deal also provides for so-called step increases, which are wage hikes based on seniority. The unions say that the state can hire workers at lower initial salaries due to the step increases, and without them would have to pay higher starting salaries.
The governor said the high rate of an inflation was atop his mind when negotiating the deal. “We’ve got about 7 to 8 percent inflation right now. What’s it going to be a year from
now? Who knows?” Lamont said.
Following final approval of the agreements, full-time employees will receive $2,500 bonuses. Republicans have criticized the administration for giving out bonuses during an election year, particularly given employees who choose to retire this summer will still get the payments.
Another $1,000 bonus will be paid out after July 1 as an incentive for employees to continue working for the state, Lamont said. Parttime workers will get prorated payments. The governor said the bonuses are a way to recognize state workers who continued to provide vital services during the pandemic. The payments come at a time when the state has a nearly $3 billion budget surplus.
“In the other 90 percent of our economy, the private sector economy, you get a bonus for your performance,” he said. “When a company is doing very well you get a bonus. It’s not tied to something else. It’s a way to say job well done.”
Lamont said the agreement is also intended to stave off a wave of retirements that is expected ahead of changes in pension rules for unionized state employees starting July 1. But numbers provided by state officials Tuesday show the so-called silver tsunami might not be as big as expected.
As of April 1, Lamont said 1,141 employees have notified the state of their intent to retire. That’s a lot more than in years past, the governor said, but a lot less than the number of people eligible to retire. Employees can decide up until essentially the last day of each month to retire starting the next month.
“Maybe it’s a little bit more certainty in terms of you know what your pay is going to be over the next few years. Maybe people appreciate the job they’ve got right now,” Lamont said. “It may not be the tsunami we thought but there still will be a significant number of retirements.”
Nick Hermes, chief human resources officer and deputy commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, said 903 employees working for agencies served by DAS submitted their intent to retire as of April 1. Ultimately, 837 of them actually retired.
“We had a few change their mind,” Hermes said. “Their minds changed shortly after announcement that we had tentative agreements for new collective bargaining agreements.”
The state has particularly struggled to hire or retain Department of Transportation engineers and public health workers such as nurses and therapists, among other jobs,according to Lamont who said the wage hikes bring salaries for state workers closer to the private sector.
“We’re never going to pay as much as they do on Wall Street,” he quipped.