WETHERSFIELD - Two weeks after approving a contract with the municipal supervisors’ union that raised employee healthcare and retirement benefit contributions while establishing new step increases throughout a three-year period, the Wethersfield Town Council approved an almost identical labor agreement with its police dispatch workers.

       The AFSCME Council 4, Local 1303-408 contract was unanimously passed at the Council’s Dec. 15 meeting. When the Council previously convened, it greenlighted a collective bargaining agreement with the AFSCME union representing its municipal supervisors, settling a controversy that Democratic councilors said could have jeopardized the ratification of future labor deals.

       The issue, which was raised by Republican councilors, was over whether or not members of the body’s Democratic majority voting on contracts with unions that contribute indirectly to their campaigns through political action committees (PACs) constitutes a conflict of interest. Republicans, led by Councilor Mike Rell, were focused specifically on the Pro Progressive Energetic Leadership (PROPEL) PAC, which contributed $1500 to the Wethersfield Democratic Town Committee--which runs the campaigns of local politicians--between 2011 and 2013, according to The Hartford Courant.

       The question prompted a tabling of the then-tentative AFSME Council 4, Local 818 agreement-the product of nine months of negotiations, as the two parties clashed on the issue. Any precedent excluding Councilmembers from voting on such matters would deter the passing of labor contracts from that point forward, Democrats said.

       But the word from Town Manager Jeff Bridges, who took the question to the town’s attorneys, was that the Democratic Councilors are free to vote on that, as well as any future AFSME agreements, so the next contract approval was carried out seamlessly.

       Like in the town’s deal with the municipal supervisors’ union, Wethersfield employees will see annual pay increases throughout the agreement’s three-year duration. The first year guarantees a 2.5 percent raise, with employees getting 2.85 percent and 2.75 percent in years two and three, respectively.

       Also going up each year will be the amount employees pay into their pension fund. Workers go from 4 percent to 4.25 percent the first year. Contributions jump from 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent in the second year, and then to 5 percent the following year.

       Employee contributions to OPEB will go from 2 percent to 2.25 percent in the first year of the contract, and then jump to 2.5 percent the following year. In the final year, contributions go up to 3 percent.

       For health insurance, employees hired in January of 2015 will contribute 16 percent of their costs. Those brought on in July of that year put in 17 percent, while those hired in July of 2016 will contribute 18 percent.

       The union has 22 members, and includes dispatchers, as well as clerks, technical assistants, engineering technicians, secretaries, and the zoning enforcement/property maintenance officer.