Newly negotiated contracts that would award raises of 4 percent per year over a two-year period to about 15,240 unionized state and county employees are being put to statewide ratification votes this week, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
The proposed agreements would cover white-collar clerical and other public workers for the state, the City and County of Honolulu, and the three neighbor island counties, as well as the unionized supervisors of both white-collar and blue-collar public employees.
A spokeswoman for the Hawaii Government Employees Association declined to provide details on the proposed settlements until the voting is complete, but sources familiar with the negotiations said the contracts would cover the two years beginning July 1.
The contracts would also continue the "step movements" that allow some employees to advance into higher pay grades based on seniority.
Ratification voting was underway Wednesday for HGEA’s Unit 2, which includes blue-collar supervisors; Unit 3, which includes white-collar line employees; and Unit 4, which includes the unionized supervisors of white-collar workers.
The largest of those units by far is Unit 3, which has about 13,600 members statewide.
A spokeswoman for Gov. David Ige declined to comment on the proposed settlements, saying "it is premature to comment at this time because negotiations are ongoing."
No estimate of the projected cost of the new HGEA agreements was available Wednesday, but similar recent agreements have proven costly for the state.
About 1,700 nurses represented by the HGEA earlier this month ratified a new contract with comparable raises of 4 percent per year, and that agreement is expected to cost the state an extra $33.7 million over the next two years, according to the state Department of Human Resources Development.
Comparable raises of about 4 percent were also approved for about 4,000 University of Hawaii faculty members by former Gov. Neil Abercrombie last year, and that agreement is expected to cost the state another $60.89 million over the next two years, according to lawmakers.
HGEA still has additional units negotiating new contracts this year, including Unit 8 with about 2,400 members from the university’s technical and professional staff, and Unit 14 with about 750 members, including state law enforcement officers and county water safety officers.
Meanwhile, the Hawaii State Teachers Association is also negotiating for additional compensation for its 13,000 members.
