5.5 EMRUSR 10-11-2022UTILITIES 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
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participants, onecontributed 100% of the sick pay, one contributed 50%, and one contributed a
varied percentage from 0% to 100% based on years of servicewith a 720-hourmax. The
Committee felt the varied percentageincrease stratified withyears of servicecould be matched
to the longevity pay increases, since they are bothretentionfocused. The Committee proposes
a varied percentage based on years of service and 960-hour max as follows:
0-7 years 50%
8-11 years 55%
12-15 years60%
16-19years65%
20-23 years 70%
24-27 years 80%
28-31 years 90%
32+ years 100%
The third request was for three additional PTO days to use for sick pay situations for non-
remote staff, that are “use it or lose it”. The Committee does not recommend any additional
sick time for any staffand has no proposal for this item.
The fourth request was to increase the Utilities Performance Metric Incentive Compensation
from 2% to 4%. The Committee proposes a .5% increase for the 2023 UPMIC year of measure,
effectively 2.5%, and .5% increase for the 2024 year of measure, effectively 3%.
ATTACHMENTS:
WBC Staff Conversations Document 8.2022
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