Portside

A new arbitration decision awarding hazard pay to unionized government workers will likely require Honolulu to pay an extra $30 million to $40 million to about 2,500 city employees for their work during the pandemic, according to city Managing Director Michael Formby.

The decision last week by arbitrator and retired state Supreme Court Justice Simeon Acoba awards 15% in extra hazard pay to United Public Workers members employed by the city for every hour they worked from March 5, 2020 to March 5, 2022, including overtime.

The decision resolves a grievance filed by the UPW against the city more than four years ago on behalf union members who were deemed essential workers, and therefore had to report to their jobs during the pandemic.

Kalani Werner, state director for UPW, said Acoba rendered a “great decision” that honors clear contract language covering hazard pay. The decision applies to between 2,400 and 3,000 members, although some of those employees only worked briefly for the city, he said.

Werner said the city has the money necessary to cover the cost of the award, and the long wait to reach this point was frustrating. 

“If the money is there — and it should have been there from the allocation from federal funds — pay out,” Werner said. “Do what’s right by your employees.” 

The union had been seeking hazard pay of 25%, which is the maximum amount authorized in the UPW contract. 

It is unclear when the union members will get the back pay. 

Werner said he wants the hazard pay distributed as soon as possible, but Formby said city staff need to sort through payroll records of thousands of employees to determine the hours worked and the amounts owed to each eligible worker.

He said a lottery may be set up to determine which employee groups or departments will have their records reviewed first, and will then get paid first.

“I think it’s very important for this class of workers that we pay them as soon as we can,” Formby said.

The Honolulu City Council has appropriated $115 million to cover hazard pay for unionized city workers, but Formby said that amount clearly will not be enough.

The city is still trying to determine how much it should to pay Honolulu police officers for their work during the pandemic. Those officers are represented by the State of Hawaii Police Organization of Police Officers and that union won a separate, more complex arbitration decision, Formby said.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association contract also calls for hazard pay, but that union is still in negotiations with the city and has not yet filed for arbitration, he said. 

The Legislature this year appropriated $450 million to pay back hazard pay to state employees who are HGEA members. That deal was struck between the union and Gov. Josh Green’s administration.

Meanwhile, unionized city bus drivers and firefighters have also made claims for pandemic hazard pay, noting they were also on the job as essential workers. But their contracts do not include specific language authorizing hazard pay, Formby said, “so we’re trying to figure that out.”

“The mayor and I have made the commitment that for the essential workers of the City and County of Honolulu who did work in the 20 to 24 month period of Covid, we need to be fair with them,” Formby said. 

The bus drivers and firefighters “haven’t filed for arbitration yet because we’re still crunching numbers to see what we can pay,” and the issue is still in negotiations, he said.

Formby said the city is discussing with the unions the possibility using compensatory time in lieu of cash to resolve some fraction of the claims for hazard pay. That option that would allow the city to spread the cost over a longer period of time.

Acoba’s 80-page written decision features a preface that declares: “In a sense it would have been beneficial if the public were sitting in the hearing to hear the stories of everyone who testified — union members and management personnel — who by and large dutifully performed their jobs in the face of extraordinary times, and thus themselves became extraordinary.”

When asked if the city might appeal Acoba’s arbitration decision to the courts, Formby said Mayor Rick Blangiardi and he agree with Acoba that “UPW workers were extraordinary in the face of the pandemic, and our intent is to make sure that they’re fairly compensated for their time they put in as essential workers.

Kevin Dayton is a reporter for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at kdayton@civilbeat.org.