CONNECTICUT The state Senate gave final approval to the raise and bonus package for state employees. Ned Lamont's administration and already ratified by the 35 . Each year includes a 2.5% general wage increase, as well as a step hike for all but the most senior workers. They are our people, who we count on each day to make us safe, she said. Negotiators will meet again to determine raises after the time period. The easiest way out of the crisis is to keep employees on board by offering them generous pay and benefit incentives. The Senate gave final approval Friday to a four-year package of raises for state employees that includes $3,500 in bonuses to help stem a surge in worker retirements. We felt one of the most efficient ways and equitable ways to make a dent in this challenge was to go back and provide those same increases to the managers that had already been given to our union employees.. Marc E. Fitch is the author of several books and novels including Shmexperts: How Power Politics and Ideology are Disguised as Science and Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs and Bigfoot. functions now spread across agencies, just as Raymond recently struck a five-year deal with Microsoft that replaces a dozen separate agency agreements. The virtually inevitable pay hikes and favorable benefit modifications will then be classified as hardship pay to reward for employees for their phantom frontline service.. This news story is funded in large part by Connecticut Publics Members One lump sum payment retroactive to 2021 with full-time employees receiving $2,500 and part-time employees receiving a prorated amount $1,000 lump sum payment effective fiscal 2023 and prorated for part-time employees The raises would cost the town about a half . State employee unions offered concessions in 2009, 2011 and 2017. Were hemorrhaging workers right now, DAgostino said. Since 1997, the State has used a formula to calculate the minimum cost of living adjustment. Our economy has grown at one of the slowest rates in the nation for the past decade, and we are getting outpaced year after year. Photos: Iconic Landmarks To Visit Across CT. In the past 10 years, the number of management-level state employees has dropped from 2,000 to 1,400, with nearly all of them choosing to leave their posts to join bargaining units and another 60 petitions currently pending, McCaw said. With this agreement, we were able to achieve those goals in a realistic way that does not imperil our future prospects and honors the great service that has and will continue to benefit our residents, Lamont said in a statement. The increases, part of a four-year package negotiated by Gov. Osten said the raises reflect the valuable work state employees provide daily, and particularly throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Going forward, these employees will be entitled to receive wage and benefit provisions that their union counterparts will receive, per language the governors office included in the 837-page budget implementer bill passed this legislative session, McCaw said. The Lamont administration, labor leaders and other supporters of the increases have said they believe unions could have gotten even larger raises had they rejected the states offer and gone to arbitration. Now shes asking for help herself, One musician remembers what it was like to tour the world with singer and activist Harry Belafonte, Connecticut COVID data: Your town's infection rate, hospitalizations & vaccinations, Tracking health threats, one sewage sample at a time, COVID during pregnancy may alter brain development in boys. Thats when more stringent limits on state retirement benefits, negotiated as part of a 2017 concessions deal with unions, take effect. Were losing some of our best and brightest as they seek other parts of the country where its easier to make a living. The bonuses, the GOP argued, are hardly the key to retaining workers, as the governor and other Democrats claim. Dannel Malloy included a provision to change the COLAs for state employees who retire after July 1, 2022. The contracts allow workers to accept the $2,500 extra payment and still retire before July 1. Critics also balk at the cost. That is the status quo.. That includes Gov. The year over year increases drive up the amount paid out by Connecticut's severely underfunded State Employee Retirement System. CT State Employees Get Scheduled Raise Amid Economic Turmoil State employees covered by unions got a 3.5 percent pay raise and two percent step increase as the state looks at massive budget deficits. Number one: What if the state developed a way for citizens to be known across agencies by the end of 2022?. Lamont could rehire retired workers as independent contractors, but then he would be paying those fees as well as funding retirement benefits. In the prison system, there are separate classifications for supervisors of correctional industries, auto mechanics, data entry, printing, clothing, and general industries. By 2020, the state paid $2.2 billion to 55,348 retirees. Administrations come and go, taking with them their priorities. Marc can be reached at, Connecticut saw a 1,600 decrease in nonfarm industry positions in December, while November private sector gains (3,300) were revised down [], Eviction cases in Hartford and Bridgeport have remained far below historical averages since the Supreme Court overturned the federal eviction []. Thats something we certainly need to work on here.. There are nine classifications for custodians, 12 for assistant attorneys general, and a whopping 221 for program directors. See stories by Keith M. 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