The city and its largest municipal union, District Council 37, reached a tentative agreement last night on a 27-month contract that gives workers increases totaling 9.87 percent.
The pact, which covers half the Big Apple’s municipal workers, will set the pattern for contracts with the other half.
Teacher and cops, however, have demanded double-digit increases.
The agreement, which runs from April 1, 2000, though June 30, 2002, has a job-security clause – meaning no layoffs.
It gives DC 37’s 125,000 members 4 percent the first year and 4 percent the second. It also sets aside 1 percent that DC 37 can spend on specific job titles as it sees fit.
In addition, the pact sets aside $200 per person as the city contribution to the union’s welfare fund.
The hikes are compounded, bringing the total increase to 9.8 percent, officials said.
The pact must still be ratified.
Mayor Giuliani said the accord includes a clause allowing the city to establish merit pay over and above what’s provided in the contract.
The agreement “is historic in that the contract acknowledges the city’s right to implement a performance-compensation plan,” Giuliani said.
DC 37 administrator Lee Saunders said, “We promised our members a fair and equitable contract, and we feel we have delivered.”
The mayor had vowed not to sign a contract without a merit-pay clause.
But that clause is nebulous, and even the mayor admitted, “We have to work that out.”
Both sides had been deadlocked for months, but a window of opportunity for a settlement appeared this spring.
City Hall officials and union leaders were eager to reach a settlement because Giuliani has to finalize a budget by June and union members have been working without a contract for months.
The negotiations began as DC 37 was cleaning house after dozens of indictments and guilty pleas for embezzlement and rigging the ratification vote for the last contract, in 1995-96.