Under a City Council proposal, non-bargaining staff earning $100,000 or more would be required to take 14 or 15 unpaid furlough days, while employees making less than $25,000 would take no furloughs.
Kateri B. WalshSPRINGFIELD – City councilors are proposing that the mayor’s plan to require all non-bargaining city employees to take 12 unpaid furlough days in the coming year be altered to soften the blow on lower paid workers.
Councilor Kateri B. Walsh, the lead sponsor of the proposal, is asking Mayor Domenic J. Sarno to instead impose a tiered furlough system in which the highest paid city employees would be required to take the most furlough days and the lower paid workers would face less furlough days.
“It would be much fairer,” Walsh said Wednesday. “There is such a difference in pay.”
The council will consider passage of the non-binding resolution at its next meeting Monday, at 7 p.m., at City Hall.
Sarno’s proposed fiscal year 2012 city budget, which takes effect July 1, includes a wage freeze and 12 furlough days for the city’s 330 non-bargaining staff including department heads and the mayor himself. The steps helped close a $5.4 million budget gap.
The wage freeze and furloughs were also proposed for union employees, but were subject to collective bargaining, and were not accepted.
The approach of 12 furlough days, regardless of income, “will place an unnecessary burden on those making lower salaries,” the council resolution states.
“A fair and equitable plan would be a tiered furlough plan..” the resolution states.
“Be it further resolved that no employee in a salary range of $25,000 or less would be included in the furloughs and if there are any employees who are currently deployed in the Armed Services, that they not be affected, the resolution states”
Sarno, through a spokesman, said he has not yet reviewed the proposal, but plans to forward it for review by his Finance Department. Sarno said he is focused on the tornado cleanup efforts.
Walsh said she believes she has the support of all 13 members of the council for the tiered system.
The council is scheduled to vote on the mayor’s $544.9 million budget proposal on Wednesday. The proposed budget includes de-funding 48.5 vacant positions, and laying off 33.5 employees.
Walsh, in one suggestion, said the mayor could have employees earning more than $100,000 take 14 or 15 furlough days, while someone earning approximately $50,000 a year could be required to take five or six furlough days.
Under one sliding scale proposed by Walsh, Sarno, whose salary is $95,000, would face 13 furlough days.