By Rita Savard
The Lowell Sun
CHELMSFORD, Mass. — A wage freeze is thawing for town firefighters with a new three-year contract, providing a 5.6 percent raise in the department’s pay scale.
Firefighters and teachers were among the only municipal unions that failed to reach a contract agreement with town officials last year. The rest of the town’s unions settled on a one-year agreement with no wage increase.
The new firefighters’ contract, which starts July 1 and expires June 30, 2013, provides a 2 percent pay raise in the first year, a 1 percent increase in the second year and a 2.5 percent hike in the final year.
That means a firefighter at the top of the pay scale, making a base of $50,377 in 2007-09, will make about $53,195 in base pay in 2012-13. The majority of the department’s 49 firefighters are at the top of the pay scale, according to town records.
Base pay does not include overtime or other perks such as educational benefits.
Town Manager Paul Cohen said the agreement signals changes in the economy, with the bulk of the increase going out into fiscal 2013.
“At some point, you’ve got to pay people,” Cohen said. “They’ve gone years with zero (percent) and 1 percent increases. The feeling is that after four years of state aid cuts, this is the end of state aid cuts and things will stabilize enough to give inflationary pay increases.”
In 2009, all town unions agreed to a one-year pay freeze amid deep cuts to state aid. The pay-freeze agreements followed midyear budget cuts, forcing the layoff of more than a dozen employees.
To try to save jobs, employees opted to forfeit wage increases.
Cohen said he’ll be working out two-year contracts for all unions with one-year agreements set to expire this year.
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