Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Burlington Reconsidering Raises

Burlington’s non-union employees are in a “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to their salaries for the upcoming fiscal year.

The city’s union workers are in line for 3.5% raises as part of the budget that takes effect July 1.  The raises are included in the current union contracts, which are in the fourth year of five.

In May, the city council signed off on a new employee manual for non-union workers.  The manual includes wage increases that are similar to the union raises.

It was shortly after that vote that Alderman Shane McCampbell started looking to rescind the pay raises, which he initially supported.

The situation started to get confusing after that for the Burlington City Council.

It has been reported that the council voted, during its June 4 meeting, to rescind the employee manual.  The confusion surfaced because the vote was not on the meeting’s public agenda.

City Manager Jim Ferneau says the council did not vote to rescind the manual.  He says a recording of the meeting shows that the panel agreed to place the manual on the agenda for the June 18 meeting.

Ferneau says at that time, the panel will decide whether to keep the raises in place, delay their start, reduce them to 2% or eliminate them.

He says the issue for council members is the city’s financial situation, in particular as Burlington must borrow money just to make payroll.

Jason Parrott is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.