The Malden Public Schools department has agreed to provide a $1,000 COVID crisis recognition bonus to Local 888 members in the administrative assistants chapter. They are year-round employees and returned to work during the pandemic.
The funding for the bonuses came from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, or ARPA. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package was backed by President Biden. No Republicans in the U.S. House or Senate voted for the bill.
The Malden bonus was on top of the raises and other gains made in a two-year contract that ran through July 2021. The Malden chapter’s members won raises of 2.5 percent and 3 percent, respectively, in those years.
In the same contract, the majority of members were reclassified to a higher wage scale in recognition of how their job duties had evolved. This meant an additional 3 percent raise in base pay for most of the Malden administrative assistants.
For more on Local 888 chapters and welcoming new members, see www.seiu888.org/2021/09/22/sign-new-employees-up-as-members-on-their-first-day/.