Apr 21, 2003 2 min read

An agreement reached between the Fayette County commissioners and many of the county’s employees have given the employees much more than 5 percent raises over the next three years. It has given them a voice in how they will be treated. The commissioners have done an admirable job during the past several years in addressing long-neglected issues in the county, including reassessment, prison expansion, economic development. But they haven’t done as well managing employees or working to gain their trust. Many of the workers who took home sub-par paychecks did so because the benefit package was decent were dismayed when the commissioners switched health plans that end up costing them more out-of-pocket cash. But the history goes deeper.

Too often the commissioners pushed off employee problems, such as job descriptions, salary classifications and benefit handling to consultants without requiring that firm deadlines be met. Employee management has been one immersed in political maneuvering and even the switch from one human resource consultant to another was clouded in politics. Several months later the games are still being played. With the new consultant recently listing costly errors that question whether health and pension benefits for those who didn’t qualify. The information is damaging and it should be dealt with. But the manner it was presented smacks as politics with one commissioner who didn’t care for the previous consultant adopting an I-told-you-so attitude in having the new consultant present the information at a public meeting.

Obviously there are failures by all three commissioners in allowing employee relations to deteriorate and for not listening to complaints by employees and consultants that the pay and benefit system wasn’t being handled well.

At a minimum, the labor strife has captured the commissioners’ attention as they have promised to give the union a voice when discussing benefit changes.