PITTSBURGH, PA (August 4, 2020) The City of Pittsburgh has signed a six-year collective bargaining agreement with American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Local 2719, a union that represents more than 200 clerical and professional employees in various departments. The agreement issues them salary increases and other employment upgrades through 2025.
“We’re happy the City is out of Act 47 and we can sit down and collectively bargain for what is a fair and equitable contract for our employees,” said John Galuska, Director of AFSCME District Council 84.
The collective bargaining agreement includes:
- Salary increases in line with compensation offered by peer cities that support family sustaining wages for the City’s workforce;
- Part-time employees will now be paid at the full salary rate for positions instead of a reduced salary rate;
- Most new employees will start at the full salary rate for a position instead of a reduced rate that increases with length of service;
- Paid Parental Leave;
- Paid Safe Leave;
- A time donation policy wherein an employee may donate paid time off to another employee who has exhausted PTO for a medical reason;
- The City can now run content produced by a third party on its City Channel;
- The City can assign overtime to those who hold necessary certifications or licenses to perform the work instead of based solely on seniority;
- The City has adapted its bereavement leave policy to account for the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 that may prevent some employees from attending funerals for family members who have died.
- The CBA also has changed all gendered pronouns (he/him/his, she/her/hers) to gender neutral pronouns (they/them/theirs) in an effort to be more inclusive for all gender identities.
The term of the agreement is from January 2020 through December 2025.
