Smithtown OKs 2 percent pay hikes

Union workers employed by the Town of Smithtown will see a smaller raise under a new contract approved Monday by the town board, and more workers could be tested for drugs.

The two-year contract, ratified last week by the union rank and file, calls for annual 2 percent raises starting July 1, less than the yearly 3.75 percent wage hikes in the contract that expired Dec. 31. Raises in the new pact are not retroactive to December.

The deal also provides for a 10-member committee to decide details of a new drug-testing plan, which is expected to add more job titles to the pool of workers who may be tested.

Civil Service Employees Association representative Kelly Brown called the contract "fair" and said the town could not afford to offer more generous raises.

"The economic climate has totally changed, the membership realizes it," Brown said Monday. "To ask for something like 3.75 [percent increases] is just crazy. I would never do anything like that."

Brown, a housing rehabilitation administrator in the town's Planning Department, said the vote to approve the contract was 236-49. The CSEA represents 409 of the town's 450 employees.

Brown said the town did not threaten layoffs if workers refused to accept the pact. Supervisor Patrick Vecchio said the 2 percent wage increase is appropriate in a slumping economy.

"This is what the town can afford," Vecchio said Monday. "I think by the number of the vote, it's an indication that they believe the contract is a fair one."

The union agreed to expand drug and alcohol testing after seven Smithtown employees, including some who were not subject to drug testing, were charged last year with drug possession.

Brown said she and the town agreed to form a committee with five members appointed by the union and five named by Vecchio to set guidelines for expanded testing.

"Both the union and the town realize there were problems in the past," Brown said.

Currently, the town follows federal guidelines that mandate testing for workers who have commercial driver's licenses and those who operate heavy-duty vehicles. The new policy is expected to include more people who drive town vehicles.