5.5 EMRUSR 10-11-2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO:FROM: ERMU Commission Theresa Slominski - GeneralManager MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: October 11, 20225.5 SUBJECT: Wage & BenefitsCommitteeUpdate ACTION REQUESTED: Approve all action items as outlined below to be effective January 1, 2023. DISCUSSION: A Wage & Benefits Committee meeting was held on September 14 to review employee requests from the August 9 open meeting. The document of the requests waspreviously provided and is also attached again.The requests were 1) a Wage Adjustment of 5%, 2) 100% sick accrual paid to the Health Care Savings Plan (HCSP) upon retirement, 3) threePTO days for non-remote workers, and 4) Utilities Performance Metrics Incentive Compensation (UPMIC) increasefrom 2% to 4%. ERMU’s HR Generalist Megan Zachman gathered data from the electric utilities that make up the Metro Average. The Metro Average encompasses the seven utilities of Anoka, Chaska, Great River Energy, North St. Paul, Shakopee, Wright Hennepin Electric, and Connexus and are most comparable to, and competitive with, ERMU for lineworker pay and accountabilities. Ms. Zachman also collected information from seven municipal utilities for all the above requests and shared the results with the Committee. The seven utilities are Alexandria, Anoka, Austin, Chaska, Owatonna, Shakopee, and Wilmar and were selected based on similarities in population, meters, services, and staffing. For the first request on wage increases, theMetro Averageresults in a 3.14% wage adjustment proposal for lineworkers in 2023. The information gathered from the seven utilities identified above on wage increases for employees other than lineworkers was preliminary, and only had two firm numbers at 3%. One estimate was 3-4%, and another estimate was 3.25%. The committee proposes a 2023, 3.14% wage adjustment for all other employees to match the lineworkers wage adjustment proposal. It was notedduring the meetingthe 3.14% proposal could change should actual numbers differ from estimates when theMetro Average utilities finalize their increases by the end of October. For the second request of 100% conversion of paid sick leave accrual to an employee’s post- employment HCSP at retirement, Ms. Zachman shared five of the seven comparable utilities participated in the HCSP. Two of the five participating utilities had union contracts and contributed 100% of the sick pay to the HCSP at time of separation. Of the non-union ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 1 of 2 83