Schuylkill commissioners approve contract with union members

Schuylkill County commissioners on Wednesday signed off on a new five-year contract with two units of county and court-related union members.

The new contract, with 203 union employees who work in the district attorney’s, sheriff’s and other court-related offices, grants wage increases of 3 percent in each year and increases the amount paid for health benefits, said county solicitor Al Marshall.

The contract is retroactive to Dec. 31, 2016, and expires at the end of 2020.

Commissioners last month signed off on an arbitration settlement with the employees’ union.

Robert Millet served as an independent arbitrator. Todd Eagen represented the unions, and Marshall the county in arbitration.

In other matters, Commissioners’ Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr. and Commissioner Frank J. Staudenmeier, with minority Commissioner Gary J. Hess absent, delayed a request from county Controller Christy D. Joy to eliminate long-vacant positions to avoid confusion as to what jobs are open.

The commissioners, as part of the county Salary Board, want to wait until a new Human Resources director is hired to replace Martina Chwastiak, who will retire at the end of this year.

Joy, also a Salary Board member, moved to eliminate “all positions that have been vacant since Jan. 1, 2017.”

“For the last few salary boards, I have told the board of my intent to eliminate vacant positions in order to create a clean slate,” he said.

“From personal knowledge, finance has a financial analyst position that was never closed when the analyst was promoted.

In 2011 a records clerk position in the prison was created and never filled. That position does not show up as open in any of the warden’s reports,” Joy said.

“Employees are the greatest expenditure of the county. The salary board was created to set the number of the positions and the salary of all employees. I am not opposed to creating positions if we close one in error. With the retirement of the human resources director, a clean slate is needed to better keep track of what is open and needs to be filled,” he said.