Tollway workers will have to start paying tolls in 2015

The Illinois tollway will eliminate a free ride for workers in 2015.

Currently, a majority of employees get a break on paying tolls to and from work using "nonrevenue" transponders.

However, after a contract settlement with one of the agency's larger unions, the Service Employees International Union, the agency announced it was ending the practice.

"All employees will be asked to return their nonrevenue transponders in 2015. The timing is subject to the status of outstanding collective bargaining agreements," spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said Thursday.

Also Thursday, tollway directors approved a three-year contract with 569 SEIU workers, who include toll collectors and janitors. The deal included salary increases in each of three years: 3 percent in 2015, and 2.5 percent in 2016 and 2017. The average annual salary is $48,000. "We certainly have taken the direction of the board that free transponders are something we would like to see eliminated," Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said last week. "We have made it a priority in our negotiations."

The agency had sought to nix the free rides previously, but several unions filed a grievance with the Illinois Labor Relations Board and won.

Nonrevenue transponders cost the tollway $455,000 a year, according to 2013 estimates based on about 1,141 employees using company-issued transponders to pay for commuting to and from work.