Officials of Nassau County, three employee unions and the county financial oversight agency struck an agreement to end a three-year wage freeze last Saturday in a four-year deal for 7,000 county workers.

The tentative agreement calls for wage increases between 2014 and 2016 of 3.5 percent, 3.75 percent and 3.5 percent in each year starting in 2014 for members of the three unions, including the Civil Service Employees Association, the Police Benevolent Association and the Detectives Association, according to officials of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority and the PBA. 

The three unions would also receive a 2 percent wage increase in 2017.  

The deal concluded a period of intense negotiations that included Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and the heads of the PBA, the CSEA and the Detectives Association.

“This is a win for all stakeholders as it achieves hundreds of millions in savings for taxpayers, settles $400 million in labor disputes and at a worst case scenario has $120 million in short-term costs as some savings are achieved through replacing high wage retirees with new employees,” Mangano said in a statement.

NIFA Chairman Jon Kaiman said the pact would result in substantial savings for the county and would also restore the morale of public employees with the resumption of annual wage hikes.

“We think it saves hundreds of millions of dollars and it also gets the public employees the confidence that they are going to get step increase and wage increases regularly,” Kaiman said. “It’s fair to the extent that it lifts the wage freeze and gets things moving forward.”

Kaiman said implementation of the agreement requires ratification by the NIFA board, the county Legislature and the three unions. He said he is calling for a NIFA board meeting on March 31. 

The agreement, he said, is effective April 1 and he expected the unions’ ratification in the next two weeks.

Kaiman said NIFA officials are meeting this week with county corrections officers, one of two unions that still must negotiate a deal, as county officials meet with the Superior Officers Association, the other union without a deal.

“My goal was to protect the country, assess the financial realities and lift the wage freeze so they could move on,” Kaiman said.

NIFA has stipulated that the county government must maintain a reserve $129 million in new revenue from speed light camera fines, sales taxes and mortgage recording fees to cover contract costs if union concessions in the deal fail to deliver expected savings.

The county anticipates savings with the new employees, who will be required to contribute 15 percent of the cost of their health benefits and an amount not yet divulged on their pension plans, Kaiman said.

Kaiman said under the pact, the unions waive the right to accrue wages lost from existing contracts in calculating salaries in the future.

“They cannot sue for the compounding and the accruals of those salaries,” he said.

James Carver, PBA president, said the agreement is “a settlement that moves us forward and ends the wage freeze.”

He said it does not require the five unions to relinquish rights to continue contesting income losses from the wage freeze the county imposed from 2011 through 2013. He said the unions would appeal a recent ruling in Nassau Supreme Court dismissing their contention that the wage freeze was illegal. He said the unions have a similar suit in federal court.

Carver said he believes the PBA membership will accept the agreement.

“I expect the membership to ratify this agreement due to the fact that we’ve been in a wage freeze for three years,” Carver said.

Jerry Larricchiuta, CSEA president, said he thought it made sense to strike a deal rather than wait for a court decision to end the wage freeze.

“I think it’s in the best interest of the members to move forward as long as it’s fair,” Larricchiuta said. “It fits the parameters for the members’ needs. We think it’s worth it to our membership just so they can start paying the bills.” 

Glenn Ciccone, president of the Nassau County Police Department Detectives Association, said he also expects the members of his association to ratify the agreement.

“It’s a welcome solution to a difficult situation for everybody,” Ciccone said. “The last pay raise they received was in 2010.”