Photo: A successful agreement was signed Monday between the town and one of the municipal union (Twitter, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Belmont Select Board approved a collective bargaining agreement with the union representing town staff and library assistants at its Aug. 29 meeting.

Belmont’s Human Resources Director Shawna Healey said the three-year contract with SEIU Local 888 is retroactive to July 1, 2020 and will continue to June 30, 2023. The contract includes a cost of living adjustment in each fiscal year of two percent and language changes from the previous contract such as changing the holiday in October from Columbus Day to Indiginous People’s Day while also adopting the BRAVE Act – paid time off for days spent on military orders – for its employees.

The union members will also receive a one-time payment to recognize employees that worked through the Covid-19 epidemic from March 2020 to March 2021 with those mostly working “on-site” will get $1,000 and those working hybrid will take home $500.

Three union contracts continue to be negotiated, said Healey. Both the firefighters and the patrol officers have been working under contracts that ended on June 30, 2020 while the Belmont Library Association’s contract expired on June 30, 2022.