Wichita Transit plans to share savings with employees

Wichita Transit has approved a new three-year contract with the Teamsters Union, agreeing to share some savings if labor and management can cooperate to reduce workers’ overtime.

The pact will give transit employees a 2.5 percent raise Jan. 28 plus an additional .5 percent on June 3. Those raises will be across the board; no merit increases will be given.

That will cost the Transit Department about $115,000, according to city documents.

Next year, the employees will get another 2.5 percent raise in January and then 1 percent in June, if management and employees reach a goal of reducing overtime by $80,000 in 2017.

If that goal isn’t met, the employees will get a 1 percent raise overall, although they could still earn merit raises or in some cases, a $500 bonus, according to a city report.

Transit Director Steve Spade said there are two factors involved in reaching the overtime reduction goal: Employees can help by improving their attendance, and management can work to maintain a full workforce to avoid having to call drivers in on their time off.

“If we work together and we reduce our overtime expense next year, we’ve offered to share a portion of that with our employees,” he said.

The City Council unanimously approved the contract between the union and the Transit Department on Tuesday. The union ratified the contract on Dec. 15.

The Transit Department has 96 union-represented employees at present, although the number fluctuates, officials said.

This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Wichita Transit plans to share savings with employees."