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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 9, 1990                   TAG: 9005090650
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM BUS DRIVERS WON'T GET PAY RAISE

Salem school bus drivers lost an appeal to the School Board Tuesday for a higher pay raise for the next fiscal year in an attempt to offset the elimination of a health insurance option.

Drivers gathered outside board chambers after their presentation, saying they were disappointed that board members weren't receptive to their request.

They were uncertain of their next move but have not ruled out a walkout, despite being told by the school administration that it is illegal for public employees in Virginia to strike, and by doing so they would risk being fired.

The 1990-91 school budget does not include an offer to employees in which they could opt to take as pay the $500 the school system applies toward the employee's share of health insurance, rather than participate in the school system's insurance policy. Most bus drivers - and other school employees who are at the lower end of the system-wide pay scale - have, in the past, taken the cash option.

The budget for the next fiscal year includes a pay increase that will raise drivers' salaries from $7,210 to $7,701. But eliminating the $500 cash option will, in effect, eliminate the raise, drivers say.

Drivers asked the board to add another 5 percent to the 7 percent pay raise already approved for drivers for the next fiscal year.

"We have a responsibility to children, getting them to and from school," driver Betty Orange told the board. "Not a day goes by that we try to keep our eyes on the road and tend to kids fighting, yelling and screaming. Not a day goes by that we are not fearful of an accident."

But Board Chairman John Moore said the school system had few choices when faced with increasing the employee-only share of health insurance costs, as requested by Blue Cross, or risking the loss of its insurance policy.

Blue Cross informed the school system earlier this year that it would not write another policy unless the school system achieved a level of contribution from the School Board that equaled half of the employee-only premium. As a result, the employee-only share will increase from $500 to $900 during the next fiscal year.

"We had to increase participation in the employee health program," Moore said. "If not, we would not have a health program. We feel the pay scale was fair. It impacts on all categories of employees."

Granting the bus drivers' request would "open the door for the same type of request from every category," Moore said. "The board feels that the pay scale approved was fair and equitable."

by CNB