February 23, 2005
Contact: Sue Baker
For Immediate Release
Avedisian announces three-year agreement with Fire Union
City to save more than $150,000 in new contract;
includes co-pay for health care; other management rights approved
WARWICK – Mayor Scott Avedisian, Warwick Firefighter Union President Warren Wright and Assistant City Solicitor Diana Pearson today announced a new three-year labor agreement that sets forth, among other things, a co-payment policy for health insurance, new cost sharing requirements regarding other health benefits and changes to policies in how personal leave is calculated.
The agreement was reached more than a week ago and was ratified several days later by the union.
Paramount to the new agreement is an $11 per week, across-the-board co-payment for health insurance, an initiative that will save the city $124,696 a year, Avedisian said.
In addition, changes in health plan benefits concerning emergency room care – an increase in emergency room visit co-payments from $25 to $100 for patients that are not admitted – will save an estimated $26,550 annually, meaning that total savings on health care will exceed $151,000 each year, Avedisian said.
The new contract also includes a change in the promotional testing policy in order to ensure greater parity, and a change in the way personal leave is calculated. In the current contract, personal days are given over and above vacation and sick leave; now, personal days will be subtracted from the total amount of sick time accrued, Avedisian said.
Additionally, those firefighters who are part of the Pension I system (hired prior to 1992) will now contribute an additional 1 percent (for a total of 8 percent) of annual salary to the pension system. (For example, a grade one firefighter in pension I would increase his or her weekly contribution by $10 – in reality, a 14.5percent increase in actual dollars contributed to the pension fund over present contributions, Avedisian said.)
The new agreement, which will expire in July 2008, grants a 3.5 percent salary increase each year.