San Bernardino County and the union representing sheriff’s deputies and district attorney investigators have agreed to a three-year labor contract that will up rank and file law enforcement officers’ pay by nine percent over the next 36 months.
The collective bargaining agreement, struck between the county and the San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association, which is known by its acronym SEBA, lays out a three percent per year salary increase, and ups the annual uniform allowance from $675 to $1,200, and increases the health insurance subsidy in steps so to achieve a $60 per month boost in the medical coverage for deputies’ families by year three of the agreement.
The pact comes three months after SEBA members staged a demonstration in front of the county administration building at which their representatives asserted the union had cooperated with the county during the 2007-2013 recession by making contract concessions, only to be taken advantage of. Deputies then initiated a work slowdown which had as its centerpiece delaying the delivery of inmates incarcerated at the sheriff’s department’s various detention facilities to their court appearances.