Scranton's police, fire and DPW unions not only again will ask a Lackawanna County judge to hold Mayor Chris Doherty in contempt of court for paying minimum wages to employees, but they also expect to sue him in federal court and file a workers' compensation complaint, their attorney said Monday.þþThe trio of unions - International Association of Firefighters Local 60, the Fraternal Order of Police E.B. Jermyn Lodge 2 and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 2305 - expect to soon file several new legal actions, said their attorney, Thomas Jennings. Those actions would include:þþn A motion in Lackawanna County Court to hold the mayor in contempt, due to paying 398 city employees minimum wages in their paychecks Friday, even though a judge on Thursday and Friday ordered full wages.þþn A lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Scranton under the Fair Labor Standards Act alleging the city has failed to pay wages on time and failed to pay overtime.þþn Another federal complaint alleging violations of the Heart and Lung Act, because benefits of disabled police and firefighters also were cut to minimum wages without first having a required hearing.þþn A penalty petition with the state workers' compensation commission over the minimum wages.þþÿPick a law. They violated it,ÿ Mr. Jennings said.þþMr. Doherty said, ÿIf I had the money, I'd pay them (employees). Again, it's the council's budgetÿ that has not provided enough funding to pay all of the city's bills.þþEfforts to reach council President Janet Evans were not successful.þþRegarding legal matters, Mr. Doherty deferred comment to city solicitor Paul Kelly, who represented the city Thursday and Friday in court on the unions' lawsuit. Efforts to reach Mr. Kelly also were unsuccessful.þþWith more legal battles looming, the city's financial crisis remained at a stalemate Monday: the city was still running on fumes while an agreement between administration and council on how to get out of the jam remained elusive, the mayor said.þþÿNothing's changed,ÿ Mr. Doherty said.þþIt remains to be seen whether the city would have enough cash on hand to make a full payroll on the next payday of July 20, the mayor said.þþAs of Monday, the city had $133,000 in cash, but owed $3.4 million in various vendor bills, one of which was health insurance, said city Business Administrator Ryan McGowan.þþThat was more than either Thursday and Friday, when the city's bottom lines were $5,000 and $83,000, respectively, he said. The daily amount fluctuates depending on how various tax revenues come in and bills are paid, he said.þþFor example, the city began Monday with $373,000, paid $190,000 to Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and $50,000 to the DPW union's pension fund, which had threatened to sue if a payment was not made, Mr. McGowan said.þþAn expected influx of wage taxes in August, from second-quarter-of-the-year collections, would bolster city coffers, but only temporarily as the city still projects a $16.8 million deficit for the year, he said.þþA payroll every two weeks amounts to $1 million, officials said. To free up cash to pay overdue bills, particularly health coverage, the mayor on June 27 announced he was indefinitely cutting salaries of all non-federally funded employees to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. This way, the payroll every two weeks would amount to $300,000, though he pledged to pay all back wages once the crisis is resolved.þþThe three unions sued on July 2 and Lackawanna County Court Judge Michael Barrasse issued injunctions Thursday (temporary) and Friday (preliminary permanent) ordering full wages, despite administration testimony that the city is nearly broke.þþPayroll processing began July 3 in preparation of Friday's paychecks, which contained only minimum wages. Despite Thursday's temporary injunction, the mayor saying Thursday that only minimum wages would be paid Friday prompted the unions to seek to hold him in contempt of Thursday's ruling. However, the judge on Friday said he would not hold the mayor in civil contempt Friday because such a move would have been premature. After that hearing, however, the employees learned their paychecks indeed contained only minimum wages and they vowed to again seek to hold the mayor in civil contempt.þþUnder questioning by Mr. Jennings, witnesses testified Friday that the administration negotiated with vendors regarding extending credit or accepting partial payments, but did not attempt any negotiations with the unions regarding lowering of their salaries.þþMr. Kelly also unsuccessfully argued in court that the lawsuit was flawed because a key party to the dispute - the council - was missing.þþThe unions' lawsuit named as defendants only the City of Scranton and Mr. Doherty, in his capacity as mayor. Though the lawsuit faults both mayor and council for months of ÿsquabblingÿ and ÿinternecine political warfareÿ that led to gridlock and victimization of employees, the lawsuit did not specifically name council as a defendant or seek to hold council members in contempt. Mr. Jennings said that was because Mr. Doherty was the one who unilaterally decided to slash salaries to minimum wages and signed the June 27 letter that was given to heads of the city's four unions informing them of his decision.þþThe city's remaining employees' union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2462 that represents clerical workers, was not a plaintiff in the unions' lawsuit.
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