Aldermen Issue Clerical Workers 3 Percent Raise Nearly A Year Late

The Oak Forest City Council approved salary adjustments for clerical staff at the April 12 meeting, granting a 3 percent raise, retroactive to May 2010, but freezing wages at those levels this May for the coming year.

The decision comes after Teamsters Local 700 filed a complaint against the city, claiming unfair labor practice, with the Illinois Labor Relations Board. 

The union went to the board in November 2010, after the council did not approve the originally submitted collective bargaining agreement that lays out a four-year salary plan—which included a raise in May 2010. Under the plan, the city is to provide clerical workers with a 3 percent salary adjustment in 2010, no raise effective May 1, 2011, and a wage re-opener provision for the third and fourth years of the contract.

The city did not issue the 3 percent raise last year due the workers because of budget constraints. Facing further legal action, City Clerk Scott Burkhardt explained that the city’s legal counsel advised that the cost of litigation would likely be greater than the cost of the salary increase.

Ald. Diane Wolf (3rd Ward) said approval of the agreement was necessary.

“The clerical staff are all hard-working and deserving of this,” Wolf said, adding that the salary increases were rejected last fall “because of the economy.”

“We are working so hard to make recessions to the budget during these hard times,” she added.