In new bargaining world, public employees seek added wage protections

DES MOINES - Its bargaining powers dramatically reduced, Iowa's largest public employee union is hoping to get a few more wage protections into contracts with the state.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61, which represents roughly 40,000 public employees in Iowa, on Thursday asked an arbitrator to rule certain employee and wage classifications and payday rules can be included in contracts with the state.

The request was made at an arbitration hearing involving the union and the state. The arguments were received by arbitrator Hugh Perry, a lawyer with the state Public Employment Relations Board.

The contract is being negotiated under new rules - approved in February by the Republican-led Iowa Legislature and governor - that eliminated most wage and benefits provisions for which public employee unions may negotiate.

In this case, the union and state have agreed on 1 percent raises each of the next two years. Wage increases are one of the few items unions still may negotiate, but even those are capped.

But the sides disagree over whether the board, in its initial ruling on the contract, deemed payday rules and employee classifications and wage baselines as items eligible for negotiation and thus inclusion in a contract.

The union wants the contract to include language that employers may not change a worker's classification, which could impact the worker's wages; that a worker's maximum wage rate should be considered the position's base rate; and rules on when a worker is paid.

The state did not counter those proposals because it believes those items are not negotiable under the new rules.

The union is asking the arbitrator to rule those items are negotiable under the new rules, and that because the state made no counteroffer, the union's proposal should be included in the contract.

'It's our interpretation that the wages that are paid to a classification are a mandatory subject of bargaining,” union President Danny Homan said in an interview after the hearing. 'They argued classifications are permissive. I understand that, but how do we mesh? They're reading something into the award that I'm not reading into the award.”

Homan and a union lawyer made their case to the arbitrator during the hearing. The state, represented by Department of Administrative Services director Janet Phipp and an attorney, submitted written testimony and asked Homan a brief round of questions.

The arbitrator has 15 days to deliver a ruling.

Homan said the provisions being sought by the union are important to preserve workers' wages and payday schedules. When discussing the employee classifications during the hearing, Homan said preserving the classifications would ensure employers do not attempt to lower workers' wages.

'I'm not saying they're thinking about doing that, but quite frankly, by everything I have seen and heard so far this year from the Iowa Legislature, my trust of the Iowa Legislature is zero,” Homan said.

He said the payday protections would stop employers from changing payday schedules that workers have come to anticipate, and that a job's maximum wage should be considered its base level because many positions hire workers at a lower wage and then increase the wage as the worker learns the job.

l Comments: (515) 422-9061; erin.murphy@lee.net