Metro employees, unions press council to restore COLA after mayor trims pay-plan increase

Hundreds of Metro employees, union leaders and school staff used the council’s public comment period to press the Metropolitan Council to restore a cost-of-living adjustment and to fully fund a pay plan recommended by the Civil Service commission.

Multiple speakers told the council they had been promised a pay plan that included a countywide COLA and step increases; they said the mayor’s proposed budget cut the COLA to 1 percent and reduced some proposed adjustments. Library staff, nurses from Nashville General Hospital, 9-1-1 dispatchers, sanitation workers and school paraprofessionals described rising housing costs and reported colleagues leaving the city because wages are not keeping pace.

The Veil Service Commission — the commission that consults on the pay plan — approved a plan that members and several public commenters described as expecting a 4 percent combined adjustment (a COLA plus step increases). Speakers and union leaders said Metro HR and the mayor’s office presented lower numbers to the commission and later reduced recommended COLA in the mayor’s budget, which they labeled a breach of trust.

Metro General Hospital staff asked the council to fund an operating subsidy of $66 million rather than the mayor’s $60 million figure and to add $8 million in capital funds for critical infrastructure. Nurses and clinicians said the hospital cares for the city’s uninsured and needs the funds to retain staff and maintain equipment.

The pay-plan ordinances were referred to committee under the council’s two-meeting process; several related items were deferred one meeting by committee rule to allow continued committee review. Council members said the substitute budget and upcoming committee hearings are the appropriate venues to reconcile the differences before final votes.