Labor Fizz: City Reduces Delay for Workers' Retro Pay; Harrell Praises SPOG Contract for "Enhancing Accountability"
The police contract, as we reported, contains no major new accountability measures or reforms.
1. City employees who were told earlier this year that they wouldn't receive pay for retroactive wage increases until October—a delay some workers described as a "zero-interest loan" to the city—learned this week that their wait will be shorter, with payments coming in July.
Unions representing thousands of city workers spent the last year negotiating new contracts with Mayor Bruce Harrell's labor relations office; initially, Harrell offered workers sub-inflationary raises of 1 percent, but the final contracts raised that amount to the rate of inflation, capped at 4 and 5 percent for 2025 and 2026, respectively.
The retroactive pay increases are 5 percent for 2023 and 4.5 percent for 2024. Initially, the city told its employees that the implementation of a new payroll system called Workday was the cause for the lengthy delay. When PubliCola asked why Workday was no longer an issue, the city's human resources department responded by sending the email that went out to city employees this week. An FAQ attached to that email noted that the payments will go out through the city's existing payroll software; the city did not respond to questions about why Workday was no longer an issue.
2. Mayor Bruce Harrell officially released the tentative 2021-2023 contract between the Seattle Police Officers Guild and the city on Monday, calling the deal a "shared commitment with our police officers to continue strengthening public safety." As PubliCola exclusively reported several weeks ago, the contract gives police a total retroactive pay increase of 23 percent through 2023, with future pay increases to be determined based on a separate contract for 2024 onward that is reportedly in mediation.
The new contract will raise the base pay for new police officers, before overtime and bonuses, to around $103,000—the highest pay for police officers in the region. As we reported, the agreement offers no significant improvements to police accountability and still falls far short of the baseline established by a police accountability ordinance in 2017, which was superseded by SPOG's (noncompliant) 2018 contract.. Nonetheless, in a statement praising the contract, Mayor Bruce Harrell said it will "enhanc[e] accountability measures to ensure allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and discipline is appropriate."
The next step for the SPOG contract is approval by the city council.