Wallingford School Cafeteria Workers Get New Contract

Employees working in the cafeterias of Wallingford schools have a new contract after working without one since last fall that increases their pay but also how much they pay for health insurance.

The Town Council Tuesday approved the contract that includes raises for the first two years but freezes pay for the third year. For the first time, they'll also be paying for their health insurance, though their contribution is only 3 percent.

The contract, retroactive to last September and running for three years, includes 2.25 percent wage increases for the first two years but none for the third year.

It's going to cost $15,460 for the retroactive pay increase for the 30 part-time and 19 full-time employees, according to Cafeteria Director Charlene Wong. That money will either come from the district's fund balance or from cafeteria revenue, she said.

The contract also calls for employees to pay 3 percent of their health care premiums, according to Asst. Supt. Jan Guarino. Previously, the employees weren't paying anything for health care, she said.

The new contract also allows for two personal days, though those days are taken from their sick days, Guarino said. So the employees can now use two of their sick days as personal days, she said.

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It also eliminates sick day payout for employees hired after September 2012, she said.

What it doesn't do is switch the employees from weekly paychecks to biweekly, something one Town Council member said he would like to see happen in the future.

"Direct deposit and biweekly checks has been an issue," said Councilman Craig Fishbein. Switching to a biweekly schedule and directly depositing check would save the town payroll costs, he said.

The district tried to get the union to agree to that, Guarino said, but was not successful. 

"Insurance and salaries were our most important components" of the negotiations, she said. "We were able to make changes there."

"It should be a no-brainer," said Councilman Jason Zandri, "and it is something we should get to."

The cafeteria workers are the district's lowest paid employees, Guarino said, so the savings wouldn't be that much.

"With others it's a very different scenario," she said, adding it will be addressed in current negotiations with other unions, including those for custodians and information technology employees.