NEW! CAPE Reaches Tentative Deal with County for Units 131/132

The California Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) has reached a tentative agreement with Los Angeles County on contracts covering Appraisers and Supervisory Appraisers in bargaining units 131 and 132.

The tentative agreement was agreed upon during a mediation session held at the CAPE offices on Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Details of the new three-year agreement with the County will be provided in the Ratification Ballot, which will be sent to CAPE members for a vote.

Below are highlights of important gains achieved by CAPE on behalf of its members in Units 131/132:

CHANGES TO APPRAISER AND APPRAISER TRAINEE CLASSIFICATIONS:

CAPE and the County have agreed to merge the Appraiser Trainee classification into the Appraiser classification and raise the starting pay of Appraisers.

For more than a decade, CAPE has been pushing for this change, through previous contract negotiations and meetings with management to no avail. Because of the hard work of the negotiations team and the activism of CAPE members, this provides additional salary increases for many CAPE members in the first year of the contract.

The new salary schedule rolls the Appraiser Trainee position into Step 1 for the first year. This will result in an approximately 3.5% increase for those currently in the Appraiser Trainee classification. And an increase in six months in Step 2.

In order to prevent new employees from passing existing ones, current employees on Steps 1-9 will receive an approximately 2.75% increase to the next step in the new schedule when it is implemented.

The County projects the implementation to be July 2019.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION DUES: Increase to $90.00/annually

ADVANCED CERTIFICATION BONUS: Increased to $200 monthly ($100 per pay period. Effective Feb. 16, 2019).

ASSIGNMENT BONUSES (Effective Feb. 16, 2019):

• Assessor Representative: 5.6468% bonus per month
• Auditor Appraiser: 2.7846% bonus per month
• Field Trainer: 5.6468% bonus per month

ADDITIONAL BONUS: A one-time Assessor’s Modernization Project (AMP) bonus of $250 on April 1, 2019.

FRINGE CONTRACT: The County agreed to lower the 2.75% Choices Sustainability Bonus offered in the Fringe Benefits Contract to completion of Step 6 for Unit 131 Appraiser members (previously offered in the 11th step) and completion of the last step for Unit 132 Supervisory Appraisers.

This increase will happen in the third year of the Fringe Benefits agreement, once that contract is settled.

WAGE INCREASES AND BONUSES:

PLEASE NOTE: This chart includes both the Unit Salary increases agreed upon by CAPE and the County (identified as “Units”), as well as the latest proposal by the county for the Fringe Benefits Contract, which is not yet settled (identified as “Fringe”). The first salary increase of 2% is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2019.

The Coalition of County Unions has made significant movement in its negotiations to secure the same deal at SEIU 721 for their CHOICES contract, but no tentative agreement has been reached yet.

NEXT STEPS:

The CAPE Board of Directors at its March meeting will vote on the Negotiating Team’s recommendation to send this contract out to the membership for ratification. Members will receive their contract ratification ballot sometime after that.

ONLY CAPE MEMBERS VOTE. NON-MEMBERS DO NOT.

If you have not updated your address with CAPE or filled out a new membership card, NOW is the time to do it!

Make sure you have a voice and a vote! CLICK HERE to download the CAPE membership card.