Blee: Council Relieved Employees Will Return to Work on Mondays

Furlough days in Galloway Township will end immediately, according to an e-mail received by Galloway Patch late Thursday night.

According to Councilman Tony Coppola, Local 210 voted to accept an agreement with the township to end furlough days immediately.

Details of the agreement were not given, but Local 21o representative Charlie Hill confirmed later in the morning that about 40 employees would return to work on Mondays, beginning immediately.

"This means the Galloway Township Municipal Building will once again be open on Mondays to service the residents of Galloway," Coppola said. "I want to thank the hard work of (Acting Township Manager) Steve Bonanni and Charlie Hill.

"But most of all, I want to thank the Galloway employees who have made great sacrifices over the past year, giving up Mondays despite great financial hardship. They are to be commended and we are looking forward to them getting back to a full schedule."

According to Galloway Township Solicitor Michael Blee, the township is still in negotiations with locals 676 and 68. Local 210 is the largest of the non-police unions.

"Throughout the negotiations, the governing body's primary goal was to represent the taxpayer," Blee said. " ... This is a reasonable agreement that protects taxpayers and brings employees back to work for a full work week without losing jobs or having layoffs. All the members of the council are relieved, and they appreciate the fact that the employees were so professional, and continued to provide services during the furlough."

"Steve Bonanni did an excellent job," Hill said. "This is good for residents because they get to keep their employees and their services."

According to Hill, the union won its previously filed grievance with the township on Thursday to recover money employees lost due to the furlough days. This could have been costly to the township, however.

"We realized that if we prevailed, it would still be a problem for the township," Hill said. "They still wouldn't be able to pack back what we were asking, and their only recourse would've been layoffs."

According to Hill, in order to avoid that possibility, the employees made sacrifices in the agreement. In exchange, the township has promised there will be no layoffs through the next two years, and there would be no additional economic hardship for the employees.

"We are very proud to be able to come to this, and I know the council feels a sense of accomplishment," Hill said. "We got together and we achieved something. Every municipality is having its problems.

"The employees are the focus here. They continued to come to work and do their job professionally with no distractions. They made sacrifices all year, and they made some more yesterday, but they did it so they could get back to work."

The township called for layoffs last year in an effort to deal with an economic quagmire, and a grievance was filed almost immediately. The furloughs were extended into 2011 at the beginning of the year by former Township Manager Roger Tees.