For First Time in 2 Years, 6 Workers Receive Raises

Six employees in the white-collar union will receive $2,000 merit increases for the first time in nearly two years.

The increases are contractual obligations from the township’s negotiations with that union, and are awarded as flat dollar amounts, Mayor Carl Suraci said.  It’s a portion of the union contracts that is decided each year by the township’s department heads.

“That was built into their contracts, that the department heads all get together and decide who is worthy of a (merit) increase each year,” Committeeman Frank DelCore said. 

But budget constraints in 2010 and 2011, and a decrease in revenue, meant union members conceded the increases as a cost-savings measure. In addition, the employees in that union agreed to reduce their wages via an hours reduction, Suraci said. The reduction of 2.5 hours from their workweek resulted in a 6.2 percent pay drop.

“As part of the concessions they made, they had forgone about a year of these merit increases,” Suraci said. “It was about two years ago that that provision in the contract was last granted.”

Since only six people receive merit increases each year, meaning a maximum of $12,000 can be awarded each year. In the years where the union members conceded the merit increases, the township saved that amount of money on top of the money saved from hours reductions.

The employees receiving the increases included Clerk to Treasurer/Tax Collector John DeDomenico, Recreation Assistant Tony Lupo, Clerk to Planning Board/Board of Adjustment Debore Padgett, Civilian Police Specialist John Sheridan, Clerk to Treasurer/Tax Collector Lisa Strothers and Clerk to Public Works Kathy Wesolowski.