WARWICK, R.I. (AP) - Firefighters in Warwick are sharing nearly $500,000 in retroactive payments to end the last outstanding grievance stemming from recent contract negotiations.
A panel of arbitrators ruled that the city should retroactively pay firefighters an extra 2.25% for work performed during the budget year that ended June 30, The Providence Journal reported.
The decision will cost the city $478,456, according to Mayor Joseph J. Solomon.
The firefighters union negotiated a new three-year agreement in January, partially retroactive, for the period from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2022.
That agreement had not resolved the firefighters’ wages for the fiscal year that ended on June 30.
The union had previously sought a 4% raise for wages during that period, and later it sought 3%, according to Solomon.
Solomon had hoped to settle the matter by giving the firefighters 1.5% but he said the arbitrators’ decision is “fair and reasonable.”
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