#1 2009-07-03 15:38:25
I though that I would start a thread where people could post points of view regaurding town employees. I have many friends that work for the town. I feel in general that they have been getting a pretty bad treatment by this current board lately. I will start with a response I had posted on another thread last night.
Offline
#2 2009-07-03 15:42:52
For your information most employees on the non- school side have not gotten a raise since 2007. Have not even had a contract negotiated since that time either. As a matter of fact the only time the unions are even approached by this current ITA is when he wants to notifiy them that he is laying more people off or Force them to take furloughs (which by the way was a $1300 pay cut off of their base salary in a short 3 month period). THe people I have talked to at the Town Barn told me they were told all spring overtime was cut with the exception of funeral's. (But I'm sure if you had it your way HFA you would have that corpse sit around and fester till a Monday so that over time could be cut there too.)
This recession has effected town employee's just like everyone else. They pay taxes.Their grocery, fuel,insurance,property taxes,and utility bills have gone up. Their hourly pay has remained unchanged for a few years now. They come into work every day wondering when the next round of State Aid cuts are coming and if the cuts will cost them their job. To imply for even a second that what is going on with the economy doesn't effect a Town Employee every bit as much as a NON-TOWN employee simply could not be further from the truth.
Now the Insurance advisory panel finds out that there is a strong probability that the insurance trust fund has been used year after year to help balance the budget. This is not money the town paid in but the 25% that the employees contribute every week. Money that in surplus years could have went towards lowering thier Insurance Premiums instead of raising them.
These are not department heads but other town employees that work in the trenches at town hall, the library, Town Barn and elswhere serviceing the public. These are people for the most part who live in this Town and pay taxes just like you. These are people who applied and got jobs working for the town. People that from time to time have to deal with An Ignorant customer with a hair across his or her ass, that has it in his or her head that since they pay taxes in this town they own that secretary or municipal maintaince worker. When confronted like that they usually just take it and service the customer like the professionals that they are.
It used to be that the BOS respected those Employees and the job they did. Not anymore. They could really care less. They would rather look at them as evil and treat them like crap. Sure they make the occasional statement claiming they appreciate them but their actions towards them do not back those statements.
You want to talk about sickening try being a town employee who was forced to take furloughs or got layed off in a recession where jobs are hard to find. You are told that this is happening because the Town which you work for is so broke that they can't even make payroll untill the end of the year. Then while you watch some of your co-workers join the unemployment line, while your at home trying to figure out how to cover your household expences because you just lost $1300 in pay, You find out that the ITA has been ordered by the BOS to copy and Audit all the harddrives in town. You later read in the news or hear around the office that not only there seems to be no real indicator of what they are looking for but you also find out that the cost of this audit could have saved a couple of jobs or kept you and all your fellow secretaries from having to take the furlough days. How could you if you were them not be upset or insulted when seeing this happen. This in what has turned into a relentless assult by the BOS and ITA on Town employees.
Doing this audit in the same fiscal year that you already cried poor can not be looked at any other way but being fiscally irresponsible.
Offline
#3 2009-07-03 16:27:12
Here is another piece of Mis-information about Town Employees. Some feel that they are overpaid, again not true. When the Bos/TA was willing to negotiate with employee unions the average annual increase that was usually agreed upon was approximately 2.25% on a . The average anuual base salary for most town employees is $45,000 - $50,000 a year. According to The Ma. Housing income table..(https://www.masshousing.com/portal/serv … its_80.pdf ) the 80% median income for a family of four in Wareham is $82,900. In 2007 that same median income level was $66,150 a year. That means the average Town employee is currently making about $32,000 a year less than median income. I'm sure there will be at least one that would argue that is more than others make but try to remember that these are not high school kids or store clerks. These are trained professionals.
The appeal to holding a Town Job used to be Job Security and Benefits more so than being the highest paid in a profression. But now the current fiscal climate combined with the constant Micromangement style attack by this current BOS has put Job Security in jeprody. And judging by what I saw at Town Meeting in that personel plan that the BOS unsuccessfully got to pass. They are trying to remove alot of the employees benfits as well.
Last edited by GWB (2009-07-03 16:48:33)
Offline
#4 2009-07-03 16:43:28
Also for anyone who may have missed it there was a very good account of Employee , ITA/BOS realtions written by the Police Union President and posted to the police Union Blog. You can find it here. http://www.warehampoliceunion.com/10001.html
Offline
#5 2009-07-03 18:42:47
GWB:
I think the sour sentiment towards public empoyees is everywhere these days. I work for a town that is not Wareham and last year we had a large lay off, then this year they complain that nothing is getting done. We are less 20% of our workforce with no overtime. There is only so much anyone can do in a day!
It is sad, which is why I am getting ready to retire after 41 years working as a civil servant. Even after all those years I am still short on the age so I will do not know if I will get my full 80%.
This is another myth, most employees work decades and do not qualify for a full retirement, also, pulbic employees in MA do not pay into social security so all we get is our pensions. My pension will be about the same as a social security check would have been. I am still limited to how much money I can make after retirement. And, here is the best part, I have paid far more into the retirement system than I ever would have paying into social security. Am I feeling a little bitter? You bet.
Someone said I will be grandfathered into social security but with the rules against double dipping I do not know how that will work until I meet with the retirement board next week. And do you know, one of the citizens who comes in all the time told me it is incumbent on me to retire so my jobc an be filled with a less expensive employee. The rudeness.
I hope that private sector employees remember that we never get a Christmas bonus, no profit sharing, no raises except what is negotiated with the town, and we work a lifetime for our pensions. It is awful how badly town workers are being treated these days. Back when I started it was an honor to work for a town, now we can hardly keep anyone more than a few years. There is nothing to keep employees in the public sector, everything we once had is slowly slipping away.
Offline
#6 2009-07-04 04:44:37
you are right there is no repect for town employees and there should be , these tax payers do not want to pay there taxes yet they want all there services, in this town wareham while we are in a down turn , thing are worse than there needs to be because of the shear incompetece and hate of these so called selectmen, they need to be draged out of town hall and be tared and feathered like the old days , they are pathetic losers , nuts , vindictive losers and they belong in jail.
Offline
