ANAHEIM : Council OKs City Workers’ Contract

City employees will receive a 7% pay raise retroactive to last October and two more increases totaling 9.25% over the next two years under a three-year contract approved Tuesday.

The City Council unanimously approved the agreement, which was reached after eight months of negotiations. The new pact covers the city’s 862 general and clerical employees.

“It’s workable,” said Sharon Erickson, president of the Anaheim Municipal Employees Assn., adding that the contract brings workers up to par with those elsewhere in the county.

Erickson said all but about 50 of the employees had been working at rates below the county average. She added that she was pleased the city gave the raises in the face of looming budget cuts.

In addition to this year’s 7% raise, the employees will receive a 4.25% increase this October and a 5% raise in October, 1992. It also added the Rev. Martin Luther King’s birthday as a paid holiday--an issue the City Council unanimously approved earlier this year--and continued regular vacations, reinstatement rights, sick leave and other benefits.

Mayor Fred Hunter called the agreement a “good one” that “considers the financial responsibility (of) the city.”