By Zach Simeone

KNOX — Highway department workers are receiving a salary increase and retroactive pay. At a special meeting last Tuesday, the town board ratified a new labor contract by a unanimous vote.

“It was basically a salary adjustment,” said Supervisor Michael Hammond. “It’s a three-year contract, and it became effective Jan. 1, 2008.” It was a triennial renewal, he said.

“There were no big sticking points,” Hammond said of the contract negotiations.

There are seven full-time workers in the highway department. Beginning rates are $12.86 an hour for laborers, $13.24 an hour for truck drivers, and $13.65 an hour for operators, Hammond said.

The contract will increase wages by 50 cents an hour in 2008, by 60 cents an hour in 2009, and by 70 cents an hour in 2010.

“The men will also be paid a retroactive back to January 1 of this year,” Hammond said.

Additionally, the new contract will require employees to contribute to the co-payment of their health insurance at the rate of 15 percent in 2008, then 16 percent in 2009, and 17 percent in 2010.

No one at the highway department, which has been unionized since Jan. 1, 1999, could be reached for comment.