Jul. 31—A new five-year Scranton police union contract achieved through binding arbitration includes pay hikes and employee health care contribution increases while eliminating the city residency requirement for union members.
The contract with the E.B. Jermyn Lodge No. 2, the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Scranton, is retroactive to 2022 and runs through 2026. It's the product of an arbitration process that began when the union and city failed to come to terms on a new contract after a prior pact expired at the end of 2021.
The arbitration award grants union members a $1,000 lump sum payment for 2022 and a 1% raise retroactive to Dec. 31 of that year. Raises in other years include: 2023, 3%; 2024, 3.5%; 2025: 4%; and 2026: 4%.
Raises from 2023 through 2026 are split, with a portion of each year's increase going into effect in January, followed by the remainder in July. For example, members' 2024 pay will increase 2% on Jan. 1, and another 1.5% on July 1. The wage hikes are equally split in 2023, 2025 and 2026.
While those pay hikes were higher than the city had proposed, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti acknowledged in a memo to city council that Scranton police wages were below market rate in a highly competitive environment.
The arbitration award also means additional health care cost sharing for union members, who'll contribute more for health coverage through payroll deductions. Deductibles will be imposed starting next year.
Effective Aug. 1, members will contribute 4% of their base pay toward health care benefits. That's a 0.5% increase. Contributions increase to 4.5% effective July 1, 2025.
Deductibles of $500 for single coverage and $1,000 for multiperson coverage go into effect Jan. 1. They increase to $750/$1,500 in 2025, and $1,250/$2,500 in 2026.
In his dissent to the arbitration award, police union-appointed arbitrator Stephen Holroyd acknowledged union members hadn't had to negotiate a new agreement since 2015 and "had been immune from considerable changes that occurred across the state with regard to employees contributing more towards health care coverage."
But he contends the arbitration award goes too far regarding deductibles.
"(I)n the final year of this award, police officers with families will still be incurring up to $2,500 in deductibles — about $1,000 more than the next-highest amount among comparable police departments," Holroyd wrote.
Residency
The lifting of Scranton's residency requirement for police officers was the primary subject of city-appointed arbitrator Robert Ufberg's dissent. Cognetti's memo describes that as "one of the most, if not the most, hotly contested issues in the arbitration hearings."