ZELIENOPLE — Police will see a pay increase with a new contract approved last week by borough council.

Council unanimously approved the collective bargaining agreement that runs from Jan. 1, 2017 through Dec. 31, 2020.

“I think council and police went over it pretty well,” said Police Chief Jim Miller. “At least in the last 19 years I’ve been here, the department has never arbitrated, which is a good thing.”

“Everybody seems to be OK with everything,” Miller continued.

Council President Allen Bayer said the new contract is a “win-win” for the borough and the bargaining unit.

“I’m very pleased with the result, more so that we don’t have to take it any further,” Bayer said.

Borough manager Don Pepe called the contract “fair.”

It covers eight full-time officers and one part-time officer.

Here are the elements of the new contract:

Wages

Base wages will increase for full-time police officers by 3 percent in 2017, 2.75 percent in 2018, 2.75 percent in 2019 and 2.5 percent in 2020.

Officers with up to one year worth of experience will see an annual wage of about $46,023, about $22.13 hourly in 2017. Officers with more than five years of experience will see an annual wage of about $65,747, about $31.61 hourly in the same year.

In the contract’s final year in 2020, officers with zero to one year’s worth of experience will see an annual wage of about $49,800, about $23.94 hourly. Officers with more than five years’ experience that same year will see an annual wage of about $71,148, about $34.21 hourly.

“At such time as each full-time officer attains his or her anniversary date, said officer shall automatically move to the next step of the pay scale,” the agreement states.

Part-time officers will be paid an hourly rate of $18.01 in 2017 and $19.50 in 2020. However, they will not be entitled to any benefits, rights or entitlements under the agreement, unless expressly stated.

Part-time officers will not be scheduled more than 72 hours in a 14-day work period.

The borough also will pay each full-time officer $3,000 a year for the Additional Compensation Program, which began in 1998 in lieu of postretirement medical benefits.

Insurance changes

The borough will provide medical insurance coverage to all full-time officers and their families.

Officers will pay contributions equal to 20 percent of the increased cost of medical insurance coverage over 2016 rates of such coverage plus 2 percent of the premium cost.

“The rate was down several years back,” Miller said.

For example, if the rate of family coverage was $1,000 per month in 2016 and $1,100 in 2017, full-time officers receiving family coverage would pay $42 a month.

If the cost of family coverage then rose to $1,150 per month in 2018, officers would pay $53 per month.

Employees will be responsible for none of the cost of the health insurance deductible in 2017 and will be responsible for 5 percent of the deductible in each of the following three years.

While police will have to pay the 5-percent deductible cost for the remainder of the contract, the borough will still manage it.

“I think if you look at the whole contract, at some point in time in four years, they may be paying somewhere around $100,” Miller said.

The Health Savings Account program will be replaced by a Health Reimbursement Arrangement program effective on New Year’s Day.

The latter reimburses employees for out-of-pocket medical expenses and individual health insurance premiums. The borough will have about $5,200 per police department employee for the program.

No new money will be deposited in the HSA accounts, but employees will retain and be able to use any existing balances in their HSA accounts.

Paying for pension

Miller said by law, officers will have to contribute a certain amount of their wages toward the police department’s pension.

“What happens is when you retire after 25 years, you get 50 percent of your salary pretty much until you die,” Miller said. “Every year, there is a minimum municipal obligation and that’s included in the pension plan to keep things going.”

To pay the obligation, officers will have to pay up to 8 percent of their wages since the police department does not receive Social Security.

The state also gives the police department a certain amount of money each year per officer employed which also goes into the minimum municipal obligation.