The JEA board of directors received some good news Tuesday in the areas of labor negotiations and audits.
The board’s agenda for its monthly meeting Downtown included an update on labor negotiations with the Professional Employees Association.
The prior agreement expired Sept. 30, 2009, and the two sides have been negotiating a new deal for about 2 1/2 years.
“We have been working on this for quite some time, but were able to come to an agreement with their leaders at the table and it was ratified by employees,” said Jim Dickenson, JEA managing director and CEO.
About 310 JEA civil service employees are covered under the contract. The employees hold positions including accountant, business analyst, construction specialist, engineer, forester, IT services technician and risk management technician.
The contract states that general and performance pay increases are frozen for fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Employees are eligible for a general pay increase of 1.5 percent in fiscal year 2011-12. Standby hourly pay will be increased to $28 for fiscal year 2011-12, which equals a $3 increase.
A pilot performance progression is included in the contract. A segment of the employees within six high flight-risk job classes will be eligible for an additional 4 percent merit increase in April 2012. High flight-risk jobs are those in the most demand in the private sector.
The contract represents a $1.1 million increase in labor costs over the three-year period, but the amount is a 66 percent decrease from the $3.3 million total additional cost incurred during the previous three-year contract which covered 2006-09.
The contract will be submitted to City Council for consideration.
The JEA Finance and Audit Committee has been busy since its last meeting, receiving the results from audits relating to different areas of JEA.
An audit was recently completed on JEA’s Greenland Energy Center.
“This audit performed a comprehensive review of the procedures and governance related to the immigration status of all of the contractors and subcontractors that worked on that project,” said Ashton Hudson, finance and audit committee chairman.
“I’m happy to report that the audit found no evidence of any ineligible employees or falsified documentation during that project,” he said.
The Council auditors also performed an audit on JEA’s accounts payable procedures.
“They made a report to us and we were found to be substantially in compliance. They found some minor issues and we have put a mitigation plan in place to address those issues,” said Hudson.
The JEA board of directors also renewed Ernst & Young to provide outside audit services for the next two years.
Board member Mike Hightower was recognized for being the newest member of the Finance and Audit Committee. He took the place of Karen Bowling, who resigned after accepting a position in Mayor Alvin Brown’s administration.
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