Gov. Scott Walker signed seven bills into law Thursday afternoon, approving contracts to raise the pay of various unions’ employees by 1 percent and amending statutory language.
The union bills will affect approximately 2,400 state workers, according to an Associated Press article. The pay raises will be applied retroactively to June 30.
Both the Senate and Assembly unanimously approved acts 118 through 122, which ratified contracts with the Professional Employees in Research, Statistics, and Analysis, the Wisconsin State Attorneys Association, the Service Employees International Union, the Wisconsin State Building Trades Negotiating Committee and the Wisconsin State Employees Union for the 2013-’14 fiscal year.
According to the article, non-union state workers received the same 1 percent raise under the July budget, and most groups decided not to negotiate since Act 10, enacted in 2011, limited bargaining to “just base pay increases no greater than inflation.”
Act 123 was the only bill not passed unanimously. Under the revisions, terminated employees cannot be paid for personal holidays earned in a previous calendar year, authorities cannot appoint residents not from Wisconsin to limited-term employment and assistant state public defenders are treated in the same legal regard as assistant district attorneys. The Senate passed the bill 21-12, and the Assembly passed the bill 59-39.
Act 124 authorizes the construction and maintenance of elevators for the Department of Safety and Professional Services and clarifies the Cosmetology Examining Board’s membership. Also, a pharmacy is immune from civil or criminal liability in addition to pharmacists and practitioners, among other amendments. Both houses passed the bill on a voice vote.
