As Council is aware, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement with between the City and the PBA provides the provision that bargaining unit members would be eligible for an annual salary adjustment.  Article 14 (Pay Provisions) of the CBA effective October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2024 requires clarification pertaining to the application of the merit based performance system and Step Amounts.

The CBA  states that, "For FY 2021-2022, bargaining unit members shall be eligible for a performance based increase of 3% of salary based upon a mutually agreed upon performance evaluation. Bargaining unit employees who receive an overall performance rating of meets expectations/satisfactory or higher will receive a 3% performance-based increase. Bargaining unit employees who receive an overall performance rating below meets expectations/satisfactory shall not receive any performance-based increase. The performance evaluations shall be conducted during the first quarter of FY 2021-2022 and any pay adjustments shall be made retroactive to October 1, 2021." 

Additionally, the CBA authorized bargaining unit members to be eligible for step increases on their anniversary dates and were limited to one step increase per fiscal year.  The CBA did not take into consideration the performance-based increase of 3% and its application to the step plan.  In some cases the performance-based increase was greater than the step increase.  This nullified step increases for bargaining unit members.  

The approval of the MOA increases the Step Plan 3% allowing the independent intent of the both, the performance based increase and Step, to be realized and effect bargaining member's pay.