Wachs Proposes Supplements for City Workers Sent to Bosnia

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs proposed Tuesday that the city offer benefits and salary supplements for up to six months to any employees called for military service during the NATO mission in Bosnia.

Similar ordinances were passed in 1990 to protect reservists called to fight in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War. In the motion introduced Tuesday, Wachs suggests having the city pay all reservists called back to duty the difference between their military pay and their current city salary, and extending health, dental and life insurance benefits to those employees.

Wachs also called on other local government agencies as well as private sector employers to offer similar support to their employees.

“City employees are being called on to serve their country in another military effort, this time in Bosnia. The deployment may be in a different part of the world, but the basic concerns underlying the council’s actions in 1990 are the same,” Wachs wrote in the motion. “The city should again show its support for its employees and their families by adopting ordinances which provide the same insurance subsidies and salary benefits for those who are called to active duty during the current crisis.”