Two unions OK deal to recoup pay

02/07/2006

Agreement partially covers lost pay, vacation for workers affected by government shutdown

Associated Press

Two state employee unions overwhelmingly ratified a deal Monday in which the state will repay workers for pay and vacation they lost during a partial government shutdown last July.

The agreement will allow as many as 9,300 employees to recoup half their normal pay or half their vacation time if they were directly affected by the eight-day shutdown.

The two unions — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees — reported that the payback program was approved by 82 percent of rank-and-file members.

Jim Monroe, executive director of MAPE, said workers deserved to collect all the compensation they lost, but union leaders believed the deal was the best they could hope for.

“The employees should have been made whole, 100 percent,” he said. “Minnesota was the only state that couldn’t avoid a shutdown last summer. The employees were nothing but a political pawn in this.”

Agencies such as the Department of Transportation and Department of Human Services were mostly dark in early July because state lawmakers failed to pass a budget on time.

The unions said the deal has a value of about $4 million, mostly to pay for future vacation days.
email thisprint this