 |
| On June 12, 2012, Teachers rally at the Board of Education meeting in the cafeteria of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School. (Bergeron Image) |
“There are two things left to complete,” he explained: 1. the salary guides and, 2. some contract language that still needs to be worked out.”
Mr. Lerner does not anticipate any glitches with contract language, emphasizing that “It’s not a problem. Some of it we already have, and some still needs to be worked out.”
The tentative agreement which has been reached locks in top-level numbers consisting of annual percentage pay increases. Those percentages must be spread out over employee salary guides.
It’s now up to the BREA to take that pot of money and to allocate it within those guides: these resemble little Excel spreadsheets that call for step increases by year, by employee classification. Annual increases are virtually automatic.
When the salary guides have been filled in by the union, they will be presented to the Board’s Negotiation Team for a final perusal. Following that, they will go to the full Board for its consideration and approval (or not!!!), probably at the next regular meeting on Monday, September 24th.
When asked about the length of the contract that has been tentatively agreed to (would it be for four years, I asked?), Mr. Lerner stated that he would “rather not reveal that now.”
When pressed further about contract length, he replied that a contract cannot be written for four years. The options before the Board are for either a one-year contract or a three-year contract, he explained.
The BREA has been working without a contract for well over a year. Don’t be surprised if a one-year contract is agreed to with a retroactive pay increase, followed by a second contract for the next three years.
Like my dad used to say about an indeterminate issue: “We’ll see.”
(Click on the image for an enhanced view.)
No comments:
Post a Comment