
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990                   TAG: 9003212408
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

5 % PAY RAISE PROPOSED

A 5 percent pay raise for all town employees, proposed in the 1990-91 budget, would bring them up to the average salaries of other Virginia localities.

Jan Nevins, a management consultant with Atlanta-based MSN Inc., presented a revised pay plan for the town at a budget work session Tuesday night.

Based on a survey of 15 localities from Harrisonburg to Bristol, most town employees are are paid roughly $1,000 a year less than people in comparable jobs.

The town has 192 full-time employees and 114 part time. Blacksburg's payroll this year is $4,206,964.

The proposed raise includes a restructuring of job classifications and would total $271,020.

Town Manager Ron Secrist said Blacksburg is suspending its pay-for-performance program for one year to accommodate the new pay plan.

The restructuring would raise salaries of employees to at least the minimum in their job range, chiefly benefiting workers in lower job classification - such as custodians, data processors, school crossing guards and clerks.

For instance, Secrist said, the town's starting salary for the lowest classification would go from $10,300 to $12,083. The new plan would benefit about a fourth of the town's full-time work force, which has the highest turnover rate.

He added two suggestions to the consultant's recommended plan:

For one year only, new hires would get paid 2 percent below the hiring rate, and then be eligible for the remainder after six months.

Nine workers whose jobs would be classified downward under the new plan remain at their current salary.

"It doesn't affect the dollars, but it does affect how they feel about themselves," Secrist said. "It's a morale situation."

Town Council agreed to the two ideas. Council members Frances Parsons and Michael Chandler were absent.

Secrist said employee reaction to the proposed plan is mixed, but overall favorable.

"We've got some who like it and some who don't. It's an anxious period. There are some who wish it had come out a better way," he said.

Council would adopt the plan at the same time it adopted the budget, Secrist said. A public hearing on the 1990-91 budget is scheduled for April 10.

by CNB