Crossing Guards Raise Expected
At Monday's meeting, the City Council is expected to vote on a pay increase for crossing guards.
The guards came out in force to a September council meeting. Here is an excerpt from Plaintalker's post on the meeting:
As the City Council prepares for budget deliberations for FY 2009, school crossing guards came out in force Monday to ask for higher pay and other demands.The crossing guards currently make $10 t0 $13 per hour, but need to make $15 per hour in order to qualify for unemployment when school is out, a spokesman said.In addition, jackets assigned to guards are designed for men and do not fit full-figured female guards, representative Melvin Cody said.The city currently has 43 designated spots requiring school crossing guards, but only 34 guards, Cody said. Sworn officers must then cover the crossings at a much higher pay rate.
Guards may get up to $16 per hour under the proposed resolution. They have not received a raise for 15 years. One veteran guard asked whether longevity pay would be considered and City Administrator Marc Dashield said it might be.
Monday's meeting is 8 p.m. in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.
--Bernice Paglia
The guards came out in force to a September council meeting. Here is an excerpt from Plaintalker's post on the meeting:
As the City Council prepares for budget deliberations for FY 2009, school crossing guards came out in force Monday to ask for higher pay and other demands.The crossing guards currently make $10 t0 $13 per hour, but need to make $15 per hour in order to qualify for unemployment when school is out, a spokesman said.In addition, jackets assigned to guards are designed for men and do not fit full-figured female guards, representative Melvin Cody said.The city currently has 43 designated spots requiring school crossing guards, but only 34 guards, Cody said. Sworn officers must then cover the crossings at a much higher pay rate.
Guards may get up to $16 per hour under the proposed resolution. They have not received a raise for 15 years. One veteran guard asked whether longevity pay would be considered and City Administrator Marc Dashield said it might be.
Monday's meeting is 8 p.m. in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 8:27 AM
7 Comments:
If teachers do not get unemployment during the summer months why should crossing guards? Why should the school district pay them while they are working and then the state pay them when they are not? Does that make sense to anybody except crossing guards?
Do school bus drivers get unemployment in the summer? If so I'm outraged.
Do lifeguards get unemployment in the winter? If so I'm outraged again.
Does anybody/everybody who works in a known seasonal occupation get unemployment? Why? They have knowingly accepted a job that has limited hours.
Paying them unemployment in the non-school months is like the state paying someone who works part time in Target the difference between part and full time. That doesn't happen, so why should it happen to crossing guards or anybody else in seasonal employment? It isn't like they were told it was full time but then got laid off in the summer.
I have empathy for the limited income of a crossing guard if it is the only household income, but why is it the state's problem to make up the difference?
And how is it possible that there are apparently unfilled crossing guard positions in Plainfield? In a city with a large unemployed population there should be ample people to fill jobs that have fairly basic job requirements.
Have the jobs not been advertised adequately? Are the jobs filled as patronage or are they openly advertised and competitive?
The sense of entitlement in both Plainfield and the country as a whole is incredible.
To 10:04...How is it they aren't filled, I hate saying it, but PEOPLE ARE LAZY. And per them earning the money and the unemployment. There are way too many patronage jobs and useless middle management jobs at the state level that I am honestly NOT going to worry about the $ these people are making. Get rid of the crony no show jobs in Trenton first and then I we can worry about whether these jobs are an issue. Seriously. When you are laying on the table dying from massive gun shot wounds..they don't put bandaids on your fingers that you scrapped when you fell after being shot 10 times in the chest. They go for the major bleeders first and fix them. And entitlement is taught...( this is for 10:39 )not suddenly thought of as a way to act. I am not willing to be a crossing guard so I have no issue with the $ they are making. Would any of you work at that rate of pay, doing what they do ??? If not...don't put it down. I won't point fingers at it because I refuse to do it. I am glad they do it for our children.
Crossing guards fall under the umbrella of the Police Department, not the BOE.
Teachers usually have an annual contract, if their contract is not renewed they can file for unemployment.
Not sure about bus drivers or lifeguards, but, IN GENERAL, you must be determined to be unemployed through no fault of your own as defined under New Jersey law.
So, yes, crossing guards are considered unemployed in the summer months.
At $13/hour they (which for the most part are seniors) make a max of $130/week, from which they pay into unemployment insurance. The gross weekly pay falls short of the $142 minimum the state requires for unemployment benefits.
Crossing guards are paying into UI, yet are unable to collect it.
Bernice,
When do you want my First Person Story of my school crossing guard days as a 6th grader ??? Now that was a Child Labor story ignored by the MSM. [main stream media]
Can someone please wake up the crossing guards and let them know we are in an economic crisis?
Do they pay employment taxes into the unemployement system? If so then they are ENTITLED to collect if the meet the criteria of unemployed. Likewise with bus drivers. And teachers get a yearly salary and them and/or their union decide whether they want payouts over the course of 12 months or lump summed at the end of the school year...
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