JACKSON — A potential unfair labor practice ruling that threatened to put the Jackson municipal budget in jeopardy has been avoided through a settlement with two local unions, officials announced during the Jan. 24 Township Council meeting, bringing to an end the dispute over the 2010-11 furlough days for those groups.

“In an effort to avoid a ruling at (the state Public Employment Relations Commission), we decided to settle,” Township Business Administrator Jose Torres said.

Members of the local chapters of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Transport Workers Union (TWU) affected by the forced unpaid furlough dates agreed to an offer from the township that would give those days back as time off.

As part of the settlement, members of those groups would be “compensated for time that they did not work” by giving back 50 percent of the days lost in 2010 and 100 percent of the days lost in 2011. Torres told the Tri-Town News that adds up to approximately 36 days.

Employees will not be allowed to cash out their comp time but could accumulate it up to 220 hours.

“We will put that time into their bank, just like we would have it as their vacation time or sick time,” Torres said.

Also included in the settlement is a clause that states that if for any reason the township has to institute layoffs, the agreement would become null and void and the township would compensate those workers with a monetary payoff to cover their accumulated compensation.

“That was put in there as a safety net and a sign of good faith from the township that we are going to avoid layoffs as much as possible,” Torres said. “Now there is also a monetary disadvantage if we go down that path.”

This announcement comes nearly a month after members of the Teamsters Union Local 97 in Lacey won a ruling from PERC that forced the township to pay $198,000 for its institution of Friday furloughs.

If the situation in Jackson reached that point, Torres estimated that it could have cost the municipality approximately $1.2 million due to the length of the furloughs and the number of workers involved.

“Had we had to pay that money back, obviously the gap to the budget would have been astronomical,” Torres said.

The furloughs in Jackson that shuttered all non-essential offices in the municipality on Fridays started in June 2010 and lasted until July 8, 2011. According to the official complaints by TWU, the unions felt that the former business administrator, Phil Del Turco, failed to properly negotiate the furloughs. Torres believes his predecessor followed an administrative code that “did allow for emergency temporary layoffs” but could have done things differently.

“I believe that if Phil (Del Turco) would have negotiated with the unions, instead of imposing (the furloughs), we wouldn’t be here today,” Torres said.

Though the current administrator said that the potential for a PERC ruling had no bearing on the layoff notices that were sent out at the end of last year, this recent agreement has had a direct impact on the number of potential people to be laid off.

Initial estimates from Torres put about 12 to 15 percent of the 130 employees who received a layoff notice as the number of potential layoffs.

At the Jan. 24 meeting, Torres told the Tri-Town News that number has been reduced to about 5 percent, putting the potential number of layoffs at four.

“Because of us not having to put that money out and paying them for the days, that lessens our budgetary obligation,” Torres said. “Therefore, a majority of those folks will not be laid off.”