By John Hill
The Press Enterprise
MURRIETA, Calif. — The association representing four Murrieta Fire Department battalion chiefs agreed to give up vacation time and make contributions to their pensions in a deal with the city.
The Murrieta Fire Management Association was the final employee group to agree to concessions after months of negotiations with the city, which was looking to cut costs in the face of a recession-fueled budget gap.
Murrieta has now negotiated new agreements with all of its workers in the past eight months. The new deals will save the city about 5 percent of its employee costs in the first year.
The cuts were made in an effort to avoid more layoffs. Murrieta cut 15 full-time workers last year to help close a $2.8 million gap.
The details of each deal were different. Many Murrieta employees gave up 5 percent of their pay and now work nine-and-a-half hour days, four days a week. As a result, City Hall is now closed on Fridays.
But police officers and firefighters, without the option of taking a day off, gave up other benefits to save the city roughly 5 percent on employee costs. The police agreed to defer scheduled pay raises.
The fire managers’ deal mirrors one agreed to by rank-and-file firefighters. They will give up nearly a week of vacation time annually, and for one year will pay 1.9 percent of the employee contribution portion of their pension costs.
Their salaries will remain the same until 2014, when they will get a 1.4 percent raise.
The deal will save the Murrieta Fire District about $23,750 in the first year, Human Resources Director Jeffrey Price said in a report.
The agreement is retroactive to June 2010 and runs until 2014.
Firefighters and their bosses also will shift to a new schedule. They will now work two consecutive 24-hour shifts, followed by four days off.
The schedule will replace the department’s Kelly Schedule, which had firefighters working three consecutive 12-hour shifts, followed by four days off.
The department will try the new schedule for about a year, according to the agreement.
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