Town, union agree to voluntary furloughs

Southampton and the town's largest union on Friday reached an agreement that would allow staff to volunteer to take days without pay to offset mandatory ones the town was about to impose.

The town was planning to furlough an undetermined number of workers for as long as 30 days, but the CSEA asked first to allow for volunteers to take two or more days in exchange.

The town has to reach $160,000 in savings to be in compliance with next year's budget, according to Russell Kratoville, Southampton's town management services administrator.

The CSEA represents about 275 workers within the town, including clerical, highway, parks and courthouse employees.

The furlough days must also be approved by the town to avoid scheduling conflicts, he said. Forms distributed by the union volunteering time are to be sent to the town by Dec. 31, Kratoville added.

The union's president, Pete Collins, said he believes enough union members will step forward.

"I have faith," he said. "It's their opportunity to help each other, and that's what a union is all about."

One of the suggestions is for some, or the entire, staff to take the furlough days next year on the Mondays before Christmas and New Year's, when town offices are closed for half of the day, though staff is paid for a full day, Collins and Kratoville said.

Kratoville praised the communication between the town and union, saying that this budget season "there was a tremendous amount of cooperation" between the two that allowed a few positions to be saved that were originally to be cut in the budget.

"There is some definite goodwill, and belief that we can do better things together than to make demands upon each other," Kratoville said.