Petersburg’s Borough Assembly approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Petersburg Municipal Employees Association, or PMEA, which is the union representing the Borough’s municipal employees.
In a vote of six to zero, the Assembly passed the contract in its scheduled executive session during its regular meeting on Monday. Mayor Mark Jensen was absent from the meeting, which was closed to the public.
The biggest change to the bargaining agreement is the elimination of step increases for wages, which are the periodic increases in a government employee’s salary from one wage to another. Employees will switch over to a longevity pay system, which means that their wage increase will be based on how long they’ve continuously worked for the Borough.
Furthermore, the contract increases the amount of paid time off workers can collect past their fifth year of employment. It also raised the ceiling for the maximum number of PTO days employees can accrue from 80 to 85 days.
The contract also includes a sanitation voucher and a harbor launch permit per calendar year to all Borough employees covered by the agreement. The three year contract will cost the Borough approximately $611,430, which is nearly $200,000 less than its last three-year agreement, ratified in 2021.
