Agenda Packets - 1986/11/03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PPS-4. Local Government Pay z4uity Act (8) The 1984 Legislature required all local units of government to conduct job evaluation studies and to implement those studies in order to remedy sex -based differentials in compensation. Cities have expended a great deal. of staff time and money in undertaking the studies and seeking to implement those studies by the 1987 statutory deadline. The primer) .ssue now facing cities, aside from funding the implementation, is ensuring the implemented studies can be maintained. In negotiatio .5 a^' settlements with most employees, the governing body is ultimately responsible for the compensation provided employees. If the governing body, through a settlement with a particular employee class, creates inequity as defined by the statute, it will be responsible for that inequity and ultimately will have to increase or freeze compensation until equity is once again achieved. This is not the case with essential employees organized under the Public Employment Labor Relations Act. These employees, to the extent that agreement with the local government can not be attained, have their compensation established through mandatory binding arbitration. The end result of the interplay between these statutes could be that the overall level of compensation for all employees, not just essential employees, will be set not by the local elected officials required to raise the reveques to pay for employees' w. compensation, but rather by arbitrators. The League strongly opposes any legislation which has the effect of promoting this result, strongly opposes legislation which excludes police, fire, and other essential employees from the pay equity act, and supports legislation which ensures that the local officials charged with setting property tax levels also set local government employee compensation levels. -50-