The city of San Francisco reached a two-year agreement with its public employee unions today to help close the city’s massive budget deficit.
The agreement, which will save an estimated $200 million over the next two years, includes 12 furlough days per year, which amounts to about a 4.6 percent wage reduction for many city employees, according to the mayor’s office.
It also requires a $30 million annual reduction in city contracts, includes a closure of some non-essential services between Christmas and New Year’s, and requires a minimum of two week’s notice for employees displaced by layoff, according to the mayor’s office.
It is expected to save more than 1,000 jobs and will limit the number of layoffs possible between now and June 30 to 500, according to the mayor’s office.
The city, which employs about 26,000 people, is facing a $483 million deficit for next year.
Anjali Asrani, a spokeswoman for the Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, said the agreement will affect approximately 17,000 city employees. The IFPTE Local 21 represents about 4,000 engineers, architects, and Internet technology and public health employees.
Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement, “This comprehensive agreement will help us balance the budget while protecting city services and jobs. Once again our public employee unions are stepping up to be part of the solution towards closing next year’s budget deficit.”
The agreement is a more comprehensive version of a framework that was announced in late March, Asrani said. It follows several weeks of negotiations between the unions and the mayor’s office, which had previously proposed reducing the work hours of about 15,000 employees to close the deficit.
The agreement was reached between the city and the Public Employee Committee, a coalition of more than 20 unions, and each union is expected to begin voting to ratify the agreement next week.
