Yesterday, after Northampton County's Personnel Committee voted to make a temporary Assessor II position permanent, in a sign of a looming re-assessment, Peg Ferraro asked Human Resource Director Amy Trapp whether the County is every going to do a pay study so that everyone is paid fairly.
Trapp had several answers. First, a salary study is "very, very expensive." Second, she does not want to give employees false hope of changes that may never occur, which she said would be bad for morale. Third, the County is waiting for a salary study completed by the County Comm'rs Ass'n of Pa (CCAP) every other year. Fourth, the County is participating in a study with Lehigh and other similarly-sized counties. Fifth, county policy requiring a salary study every two years is too frequent. Sixth, every year, she will be approaching a few positions where she knows that salaries are compressed. Seventh, she said that this is a financial decision that should be made by the Executive and Council.
Bottom line. There will be no salary study. Trapp will pick and choose the positions she claims to now are in need of increases. Which will just cause more disparity and depress morale.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
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Thursday, June 15, 2017
28 comments:
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Too expensive. Stop the nonsense!
ReplyDeleteCounty government seems to run as well or poorly as any other time. Why bother?
ReplyDeleteWhat does she care she got her $120K! She doesn't care about the employees. She is self-centered. When is the time punching going to be done away with?? She needs to go!
ReplyDeleteThank you Peg for caring! Please keep fighting for us.
She needs to go
Delete". . . bad for morale . . ." -- HOW MUCH WORSE CAN MORALE GET! Between Brown, Allen, and Trapp, they have morale at it's all time low. Get them out!
ReplyDeleteTrapp the spin master. She is making her unwarranted money, why should she care! Do you think Brown wants to increase expenses in an election year? Nice try Peg, your dumb question will not endear you to the labor front in NC. Poor county government in action. What else in NC!
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeleteYou should ask Amy and County council why the county hasn't given step raises in over quite sometime now. They are glad to give out measly 2% raises but they never follow the step raises for employees. I understand why they don't want to but why even have steps if they aren't going to use them? You have some employees working at the same step as when they started and that is not fair. County council should either do a pay study or start rewarding those underpaid employees with at least their yearly pay steps.
She'd rather spend 75 grand on trips to Vegas for her people and her department.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a raise in 4 years, that is not good for morale
ReplyDeleteYou must work for PSSU - tell them to negotiate their contract!
DeleteHey Ms. Back to the Future, last study was completed 26 years ago in 1991. What's the hold up! This group finds money for everything else. Only the suck ups in the admin are getting their salaries adjusted, not us working stiffs. Can't wait to retire shortly! Hopefully that won't be taken away form us either like much of our Health Care. Speaking of which, since Obama Care is pretty much DOA and the Trump admin has changed the penalty rules regulating the Great O's deplorable attempt in socialistic health care, lets get our system back to the way it was 4 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression that the Union's negotiated wages
ReplyDeleteI believe what the hover board queen said was she would rather take the cost of an expensive study by consultants and use it to work toward increases for employees and they do a review of positions upon every vacancy, AND there is salary study information being put together as part of union negotiations. It's interesting how you leave that part out...also, she does not control steps OR wage increase amounts. That is within the purview of Council and the Executive. THEY are who control this, not a figurehead who has no voting rights or veto power. Tell Peg to put her money where her mouth is and see if she can get the votes for a step increase on top of a COLA. She is the elected official...
ReplyDelete8:41, Wow! That sounds almost word-for-word like exactly what Trapp said last night, minus the insult to Peg. Are you going to call the workforce "entitled spoiled brat government employees," too?
ReplyDeleteThe unions do negotiate wages, and have requested a salary study.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't council just order the study to be done? It's in their authority to do so. Instead of asking why one hasn't been completed just tell them to complete one. Besides, the two studies during the Stoffa Administration did not give the results they wanted so they promptly ignored them. And while a price tag of $130k may seem expensive just think about the $36k useless timeclocks that should have been sent back for a prompt refund.
ReplyDeleteNobody, and I mean nobody, stuck it to the employees like John Stoffa. That is until John Brown came to the County. What is it with these John's?
ReplyDeleteI believe there are about ten bargaining units in the County at present. If they want a pay study, tell them first to unite under one flag, not more than two. You can't do a pay study with ten different unions pulling in ten different directions..
The pay studies that are done by PSACC is for individual salaries of the Counties and their employees and not true pay studies because they do not compare County Salaries with private industry in those areas of the state. They compare one county against another county. Doesn't the Home Rule Charter mandate that pay studies be conducted on a routine basis?
Peg makes another hand-wring speech and then sits back. Nice advocating if you don't cars what happens. It is her MO.
ReplyDeleteI wish they would do a salary study. the would find current county employees with benefits packagers make more than their private counterparts. When they all have salaries adjusted down what will they say then? Be careful what you wish for/, The problem is these people think a salary study means more money, it could also mean less. Want to roll the dice?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
ReplyDelete11:50: What the hell have you been smoking ? Seriously .Apparently you know nothing of the salaries and so called benefits that the county gives the employees. I bet you work at McDucks and want $15.00 an hour. There are employees at the courthouse that make less than that. LOOK IT UP .
ReplyDeleteTrapp doesn't want the morale to go down. How can it when it is at it's all time low! What about the non-union employees? What about the employees in the positions that don't become vacant? Bull, make them pay for the study!!!! No employees, no work gets done. Like to see upper management do our jobs! LOL
ReplyDeleteWhen will non union employees get a step raise? It has to be at least 4 years now, and someone just starting in a position come it at the same salary as a person who has been there for 4 years. It makes absolutely no sense to have a pay scale if the worker never moves from the starting step. At least the union can negotiate a fair deal. Those not union eligible are at the mercy of those who could care less about employees. A pay study won't do anything as we had one before, and NOTHING happened. From what I remember it would cost too much money to classify workers correctly. So.... like most private sector jobs, the worker gets the shaft. Companies don't want to lower their the profit by paying the worker and government does not want to raise taxes to pay the worker. Who gets the shaft THE WORKERS.
ReplyDeleteNon union got a raise when Kraft advocated for a increase for you. I guess that was forgotten already and we are back to not having a raise since Reibman's admin
ReplyDeleteYou are correct non-union did get a raise however, the high paid HR staff decide not to use that increase to move workers up a step. So again, those working there for years are still at the starting step and will make the same as the new hire. This helps when getting new applicants but does not help with employee moral. Pay steps should be used to keep current knowledgeable staff so we can stop the constant training process due to turnover. Really this is not brain surgery it is common sense.
ReplyDeleteAs a union employee I was receiving the same step as a new hire for years during the hiring freeze. I was a step 2. Then I got a good kick in the teeth when all the first step employees got a 9% raise and I lost a step back to step one because I only deserved 4.5%. Finally I'm back up to a step two after 7 years of service. And with the minimum wage war looming to raise to $15 an hour I will actually be making less than a fast food restaurant.
ReplyDeleteOh btw for those that don't think we pay anything for medical, I just received a bill for $1045 for testing. I thought this was a mistake because I covered my deductible already! Sadly it was correct in the new plan. They give us "gap insurance" to try and make us feel better but it doesn't really cover anything apparently. I see all my hard work going backwards just like everyone else. I have to have 2 jobs like everyone else. I am a Northampton County tax payer and pay my own wages. This isn't right.
9:05 - I hear you. Boy do I hear you. Can't even go to the doctor anymore since the Great "O" invaded healthcare . Remember , you can keep your doctor, cost will go down $2500 per year blah ,blah, blah. he stated . LIAR ! The guy was a talking pile of crap. Time to get our old healthcare back. Hope the unions take a stand on their new contract talks on this one. Time for them to get a set of balls and stand up for what is right. No pay,so at least get this back.
ReplyDelete1. The HR Director, Executive, and Council have no say on to whether a salary study should be done and reasons not for or for one. It is in the HRC tha states it shall be done every two years.
ReplyDelete2. Every time a new Admin staff has been hired or gets a pay raise it has always been said what their counterpart in other comparable counties are making. Interesting.
3. This Administration has used the ACA as propoganda to shredding the healthcare of non-unionized workers. Then talk out the other side how they value the workers of NorCo.