By Erica C. Barnett
Nearly 1,200 city employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which includes the line workers, tree trimmers, electricians, and other workers at Seattle City Light, won’t get their approved raises and retroactive pay until November at the earliest, even though the city approved their most recent contract in June. The contract covers the years 2023 through 2026, so the city owes these workers retroactive pay increases for 2023 and 2024, in addition to wage increases going forward.
The city is blaming the implementation of Workday, a new payroll and HR management system, for the delay. If this sounds familiar, that’s because the city gave the exact same explanation for delaying wage increases for about 7,000 city employees covered by the Coalition of City Unions (CCU), whose own contracts were approved in April.
The city’s plan was to hold on to the money for those workers’ pay increases until October, when the city then said Workday would be fully implemented and stable, but union members pushed back (and PubliCola stayed on the story), and the city decided it could get their checks out the door before Workday implementation after all.
According to the city, the reason Local 77 employees will have to wait until the end of 2024 for their 2023 and 2024 raises is that their contract was approved months after the Coalition contracts, making it impossible to plug the pay changes into Workday before it goes live in the fall.
“The Workday project was closed to any additional configuration changes by the time the IBEW contract was ratified, and therefore could not be implemented prior to go-live,” said Callie Craighead, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bruce Harrell. “It is a standard best practice for software projects in the final phase of implementation to hold on further configuration changes prior to go-live as we want to ensure City employees are paid correctly. Once Workday is live and the system is through the initial stabilization period, the City will implement outstanding ratified agreements.”
But the union isn’t buying that explanation. In a July 3 letter to Harrell and the City Council, IBEW 77 Business Representative Steve Kovac said it was “beyond comprehension” that the city found a way to implement pay increases for most of its employees, but not IBEW-represented workers.
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“It was explained to me that payroll management reported that ‘it’s just too hard’ to pay the increases and retro prior to implementing Workday,” Kovac wrote. “I hope this isn’t the new mantra for the City. Our members don’t have the option of saying they won’t do their job because ‘it’s just too hard.'” Kovac told PubliCola the contract was actually ready to go last year, but the city’s labor relations division kept delaying negotiations, citing the need for new members of the city’s Labor Relations Policy Committee, which includes three brand-new council members, to get up to speed.
Kovac said no one at the mayor’s office or any city council office has responded to the union’s letter.
“These are people who haven’t had a pay raise in two years. They dealt with double-digit inflation in those two years, and the city doesn’t seem to care,” Kovac said. The union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint against the city over the delays, along with grievances for discrimination against the city for not following the terms of the contract. “It says ‘full force and effect,’ and it says … that payroll errors will be fixed within two pay periods. As far as I’m concerned, not paying our raises is a payroll error.”
The new contract includes retroactive pay increases of 5 percent and 4.5 percent for 2023 and 2024, respectively; compounded, that’s almost 10 percent. Starting in 2025, workers’ pay increases will be based on inflation and set at a minimum of 2 percent and a maximum of 4 percent.
One worker represented by the union, who requested anonymity, said she has been unable to pay her mortgage and had to stop paying union dues because she had made financial decisions—including buying a house—based on the understanding that her raise, which will add up to about $7.50 an hour starting next year, would go through once the city approved the new contract. Now, she’s wondering how she’ll be able to pay her expenses while she waits several more months for her raise, and retroactive pay for 2023 and 2024, to take effect.
“This is not something new,” she said. “It certainly is something that they knew they were planning for. If our contract expired at the end of 2022, then you’ve known that you’re going to have to give retroactive wages since 2022. This is not a surprise.”
“I don’t think the city realizes how much this is having a real effect on our finances and our wellbeing,” the employee said.
The city sets aside money to pay for retroactive and future wage increases well in advance, Kovac noted. “That money goes into an account and makes interest, and we don’t get any interest.” PubliCola has asked the city whether funds for future wage increases are invested in interest-bearing accounts, and if so, what kind.
Craighead, from the mayor’s office, said Workday is expected to launch in September. Problems with Workday delayed hundreds of research grants at the University of Washington earlier this year, and employees for the city of Los Angeles have been dealing with under- and overpayments for months after the city implemented Workday, at about double its initial price tag, earlier this year.
Nothing like not being paid despite a signed contract (that as stated by others, was delayed by the city as they had to prioritize other contracts first) and now having to go in 3x a week in November to sit in a cube to be on a headset for meetings on teams.
Look, the city is obviously the employer but just say it’s a political decision vs. some unsubstantiated garbage about (waves hands) collaboration and productivity.
There’s a reason job postings – when we had them prior to the hiring freeze – sat unfilled for months or were filled with someone not up to the task because “warm body”. Certainly these latest smooth moves will help fix things. 🙄
“According to the city, the reason Local 77 employees will have to wait until the end of 2024 for their 2023 and 2024 raises is that their contract was approved months after the Coalition contracts, making it impossible to plug the pay changes into Workday before it goes live in the fall.”
Erica,
Did the city conveniently forget to mention that Local 77 was prohibited from meeting with city labor relations employees, until the coalition unions had settled their contracts with the city? Local 77 filed an unfair labor practice to that effect, as I recall. The city plays hardball with its employees, at a time of hyper inflation these last few years. We understand that times are tough for the city, we would just hope for some tangible mark of appreciation, if not in the form of a timely, if not frugal, cost of living adjustment, just something showing us we matter. Many savings accounts pay 4-5% interest these days, so if the city has put our pay into one of these savings account, we would like to receive these funds.
Mayor Harrold, please do the right thing!
To put into comparison, ProTec17 submitted their first offer by 12/31/2022 as required by the contract terms for that contract. The city did not make their first “offer” until nearly the end of March 2023. That offer only said 1% COLA for each year and they demanded 5 years for the contract. From there is only got worse and worse. It was not until local Seattlites and employees got signatures and were in front of the city building that the Mayor got involved directly. From there it went fairly quickly after 4 more months of them insisting 1% was all they would ever do. The mayor’s office also announced the day after the contract was ratified that we would not get our retro due to delay in contract approval, which by this time was nearly Christmas of last year. He said that WorkDay was the issue (Q1 this year WD was already approximately 15 months behind in development and not being used by 4-5 main areas of the city because it cannot do all of what it needs to do. Ultimately 17 and stewards made it clear we wanted our retro faster, we got it in July, along with also getting our rate increases in May. It can be done, they just do not want to. Also, because of the delays of the Mayor’s office, across the city, nearly every payroll department had to work excessive OT to get everything done.
How does such a supposedly liberal city elect so many scumbags and do so many horrible things? Bring back McGinn.
Wow. If I was that union rep, I would help every single affected member file with Small Claims Court for past-due wages, plus interest and liquidated damages under the Seattle Wage Theft Ordinance. Wages are due timely after the work is performed, and this contract was ratified months back. This is a legally risky and irresponsible move by the City, and it’s likely racking up liability already.
Only problem is the cap for small claims court is $10,000. The retroactive pay for these staff members is now at or above $15,000 each… and by the time they get their pay in 2025 will be over $20,000 per person in back due wages that they receive no interest on.
All together it’s about 20 million in withheld wages.
One of the things we pushed for with our CCU/ProTec17 contract retro pay and vacation accrual catch up was requiring a pot sweetener, as it were, and miraculously we got our retro/vacation update within about 3-4 weeks after that.
And yet I’ll bet they have no problem finding a way to pay Cops their wage increases, hiring bonuses, etc.
Isn’t the SPD contract still “up for debate” by the council?
I had the same thought. And we’ll see more the same prevarication and nonsense when the next educator contract comes up for renewal. That’s not with the city directly but the Seattle Process is everywhere.