City of Somerville, has reached a new agreement with the union representing its Emergency Telecommunicators (Police Dispatchers) for a new contract. ~Photos courtesy of City of Somerville

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, on behalf of the City of Somerville, has reached a new agreement with the union representing its Emergency Telecommunicators (Police Dispatchers) for a new contract, providing improved wages and benefits for a vital group of the City’s public safety workforce.

The City’s Police Dispatchers are community members’ first contact when they dial 911 and provide 24/7 dispatch for the Somerville Police Department. Their contract is negotiated by Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 888. The new three-year agreement will run from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2026 and reflects the City’s commitment to supporting its essential personnel while ensuring the effective delivery of emergency services.

The agreement includes, amongst other things, several important updates that will improve Police Dispatchers’ compensation and quality of life:

• Compensation: The agreement includes:
  • A retroactive 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective July 1, 2023. A 3% COLA will go into effect starting  July 1, 2025.
  • In the second year of the contract, starting July 1, 2024, the agreement establishes a new 5-step salary scale designed to bring the Police Dispatchers’ wages into alignment with the market for these public safety personnel and the wages paid to the City’s Fire Alarm Operators. The new scale introduced in the second year of the contract increases the starting salary for new Police Dispatchers by 5.5%, and includes step increases for those with 10- and 20-years of seniority that are 9% and 22% higher, respectively, than the highest step on the former scale.
     
  • Additionally, the contract introduces new stipends for advanced language skills and report writing, and includes substantial increases to the longevity stipends paid to senior Police Dispatchers.
• Paid Family and Medical Leave: Police Dispatchers will now be eligible for the City’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program, which the City is in the process of implementing and will provide eight weeks of paid leave for qualifying absences under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
• Increases to Vacation, Sick, and Wellness Time: The agreement increases the amount of vacation time available to Police Dispatchers with eight years of experience or more by adjusting the vacation accrual system and schedule and providing, on average, an additional week of vacation for senior Police Dispatchers. The agreement also establishes a unit-wide sick leave bank for the first time, and provides Police Dispatchers with eight hours of “wellness release time” per calendar year, which can be used for preventative medical care or mental health appointments.

The Police Dispatcher union has ratified the new contract and the parties have signed it, leaving only the City Council to fund the cost of the contract before it takes effect.