Island Lake employees get 3% raises under new labor deal

Fourteen Island Lake village employees will get 3-percent salary increases this year under the terms of a new labor agreement, officials said Friday.

The two-year deal covers full-time employees in the public works and water departments and the administration who are in International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. The board approved the contract Thursday night with little public discussion.

The contract retroactively covers employment from May 1, 2012, to April 30, 2014, Finance Director John Little said.

The affected employees had been working under a one-year extension of a previous contract, Little said. That extension expired this past April.

The contract includes a second 3-percent pay raise for the 2013-14 fiscal year and 2-percent raises for workers on their employment anniversaries in that year too, Little said.

Salaries for those employees have been frozen since May 2008, Little said.

Little called the labor negotiations cooperative.

“It was a good working relationship,” he said.

The village board approved the deal with a 5-1 vote. Trustee Laurie Rabattini cast the lone “no” vote, saying she didn’t feel the deal “is the best thing for this village.”

She was particularly concerned about the employees’ health care costs, which continue to be covered 100 percent by the village.

No other trustees commented on the proposal.