Renegotiated contract adjusts shift differential pay for Sheriff's Office

Mineral County Commissioner Roman Zylawy gave county commissioners and attendees an update on Teamsters Union contract negotiations, including a change in shift differential pay.

According to Commissioner Zylawy, the previous contract discouraged the Sherriff’s Office from scheduling officers between the hours of five and six in the evening because they would lose out on an extra .25 cents in pay per hour. To accomplish this, Commissioner Zylawy changed the wording of the contract to state "hours worked" instead of "shift beginning."

"What was happening is that the Sheriff wasn’t scheduling anybody out because of it, so I said lets make it be the window of hours and it will have nothing to do with when your shift starts," Commissioner Zylawy said. "Now if your shift starts at five you are not getting the shift differential (for that hour) but once six hits, I backed it up to six at night, basically one hour would be not getting it."

Contract negotiations also involved giving a jail supervisor a raise, which Commissioner Zylawy said should wait until a supervisor is properly trained.

"It can’t be an automatic they are going to name a head jailer and they get a raise, it is going to be a head jailer who has gone to training," Commissioner Zylawy said.

According to Commissioner Zylawy, the commissioners must wait until all of the staff in the Sheriff’s Office has signed the new contract prior to being able to approve and sign it themselves.

Once signed, employees will receive their retroactive pay.

"I would hope, since we have the contact, that in good faith the deputies will start working from five to six," Commissioner Zylawy said.