JAY – Selectmen voted Monday night to ratify four union contracts that give employees a 9 percent increase over three years. The contracts also increase employees’ contributions for family health insurance coverage to 20 percent by the last year of the contract.

The new contracts are retroactive to July 1, 2002. Negotiations ended up in fact-finding when town officials and union representatives couldn’t reach an agreement. The big issues were wages and health insurance.

The contracts approved Monday cover 28 employees. That breaks down to about 10 employees in the Police Department, 10 employees at the Highway Department, one employee at the Sewer Department and seven at the Transfer Station.

All four contracts call for employees in those bargaining units to get a 3 percent raise in each year of the three-year contract.

The town covers health insurance for union employees, but requires employees to contribute a share for their dependents’ care.

In the last contracts, employees paid 10 percent of the dependents’ health care, now they’ll pay 12.5 percent the first year, 16 percent the second year and 20 percent the third year.

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