Employees, Council Agree to 4-Year Contract : Labor: About 960 city workers will receive raises of 5.5% and 5% in the first 2 years. The final 2 increases will be linked to inflation.

The Glendale City Council has approved a four-year contract that gives about 960 city employees raises of 10.5% during the first two years. Raises during the final two years will be based on inflation, up to 9% annually.

The pact with the Glendale City Employees Assn. covers power and water workers and clerical staff members. The agreement does not cover police and Fire Department employees.

Union President LeRoy Siders, in a written statement, said, “The negotiation team feels that this package will be beneficial for the majority of its members and also for the city of Glendale.”

He declined to comment further on the contract, which runs from July 16, 1990, through June 30, 1994.

The new contract will cost the city an additional $2.8 million annually, averaged over the four-year period, said Jack Hoffman, Glendale’s personnel director.

Employees will receive a 5.5% pay increase during the first year and a 5% increase the second.

During the first two years, part of the pay raises will go directly to employee salaries, while the remainder will be non-taxable because it will be used to offset some retirement fund contributions that employees make now. The workers chose to use part of the money that way, instead of adding the entire raise to their salaries, city officials said.

“It’s a little bit of a break for tax purposes for the employees, but it costs the city the same amount,” Hoffman said.

He said four-year contracts are rare because of uncertainty about future financial conditions. By tying raises during the final two years of the contract to the Consumer Price Index, workers should be protected against inflation, Hoffman said.

“We gave them economic protection,” he said. “In exchange, they gave us what we call labor stability.”

Under the pact, the employees agreed to share in the cost of medical insurance premium increases that occur during the last three years of the contract.