TOMS RIVER – The township and the unions representing emergency dispatchers have come to an agreement for a contract that includes a 2 percent maximum salary increase and brings the contracts in line with other police bargaining units.
The four-year agreements are between the township and its 13 dispatchers, whether police or fire dispatch.
Township Council approved the agreements recently, and Township Administrator Paul Shives said he was pleased with the outcome.
“This is a 24-7 operation ‑‑ fire and police,” Shives said. “It includes all the dispatchers in the town, both fire districts included.”
Shives said the major change, besides the salary increase, is the contract now creates the same steps or pay levels that were bargained for police officers back in 2013.
Then, that salary scale included a 12-step salary guide, as opposed to the previous 9-step guide, and now includes a lower starting pay and lower maximum top pay.
Shives said it will be the same now for dispatchers.
“It implements all the other changes we’ve had in the other collective bargaining agreements, for example, there is a new lower payscale for new employees hired after January 1, 2011,” said the administrator.
That should result in savings to the township over the course of a dispatcher’s career in Toms River, officials said.
The dispatch operations are inside police headquarters on Oak Avenue.
