Wage dispute system may need reform
Lincoln City Hall already is wrestling with budget problems. The money trouble could get even worse now that an employee union has decided to take its wage dispute to the state.
Heading to the Commission of Industrial Relations is the Public Association of Government Employees, which represents 456 blue-collar, clerical and technical employees.
The last time this happened in 1998, city government ended up on the hook for $4.7 million in back pay for firefighters.
That prompted an unsuccessful attempt by Lincoln city officials and others to reform the CIR system to give elected officials more control over employee wages.
Renewal of that effort would be timely. Local elected officials should consider joining forces with officials elsewhere in the state to convince the Legislature to look into the possibility of reform.
The CIR system, created in 1947 and broadened in 1969 to include all public employees, has not undergone substantive change for several decades.
The chief impetus for its creation was a desire by elected officials to avoid the specter of strikes by public employees. The commission provides a safety valve by allowing public employees to seek wages that are comparable to employees in similar jobs.
Few elected officials would want to eliminate the commission. Strikes by public employees are enormously disruptive. Negative effects can linger for years.
However, improvement in the system may be possible by setting new guidelines for the CIR to use when it selects an array of cities and employee groups that it considers comparable to the workers seeking the ruling.
Local officials have long contended that the CIR has too much latitude in determining that array. In the 1998 ruling on firefighters, for example, the commission included the city of Minneapolis, which was part of a metropolitan area with a population more than four times that of Lincoln.
Another change suggested by advocates would be greater reliance by the CIR on comparisons with the private sector.
Certainly city employees should be paid a fair wage. The city work force is shouldering an ever-increasing workload. Except for public safety workers, the number of city employees has been declining in recent years.
Mayor Chris Beutler’s proposed budget would put the number of non-public safety workers below the total in 1990. Since then, the city has grown by almost 30,000 residents.
But the system also ought to be fair to taxpayers. Changes in the CIR system would give local officials more control over personnel costs and could provide more flexibility to adapt to rapidly evolving changes in the marketplace.
Heading to the Commission of Industrial Relations is the Public Association of Government Employees, which represents 456 blue-collar, clerical and technical employees.
The last time this happened in 1998, city government ended up on the hook for $4.7 million in back pay for firefighters.
That prompted an unsuccessful attempt by Lincoln city officials and others to reform the CIR system to give elected officials more control over employee wages.
Renewal of that effort would be timely. Local elected officials should consider joining forces with officials elsewhere in the state to convince the Legislature to look into the possibility of reform.
The CIR system, created in 1947 and broadened in 1969 to include all public employees, has not undergone substantive change for several decades.
The chief impetus for its creation was a desire by elected officials to avoid the specter of strikes by public employees. The commission provides a safety valve by allowing public employees to seek wages that are comparable to employees in similar jobs.
Few elected officials would want to eliminate the commission. Strikes by public employees are enormously disruptive. Negative effects can linger for years.
However, improvement in the system may be possible by setting new guidelines for the CIR to use when it selects an array of cities and employee groups that it considers comparable to the workers seeking the ruling.
Local officials have long contended that the CIR has too much latitude in determining that array. In the 1998 ruling on firefighters, for example, the commission included the city of Minneapolis, which was part of a metropolitan area with a population more than four times that of Lincoln.
Another change suggested by advocates would be greater reliance by the CIR on comparisons with the private sector.
Certainly city employees should be paid a fair wage. The city work force is shouldering an ever-increasing workload. Except for public safety workers, the number of city employees has been declining in recent years.
Mayor Chris Beutler’s proposed budget would put the number of non-public safety workers below the total in 1990. Since then, the city has grown by almost 30,000 residents.
But the system also ought to be fair to taxpayers. Changes in the CIR system would give local officials more control over personnel costs and could provide more flexibility to adapt to rapidly evolving changes in the marketplace.
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