Escambia County Corrections employees at the county Road Camp will receive an additional employee benefit that none of the county’s other employees will receive next year.

Commissioners today voted unanimously to give the police union what it was asking for — replacement of longevity pay with an educational stipend for additional officer training — mirroring the ruling of a special magistrate in Tallahassee.

The county and the Florida Police Benevolent Association had tried last year to negotiate a new three-year union contract for county Corrections employees who work at the Road Camp. The contract ended Sept. 30, 2009. But the two sides couldn’t agree on issues relating to employee benefits and went into impasse.

So, the matter went before a state Public Employees Relations Commission special magistrate to decide.  Today commissioners had an impasse hearing to hear from both the management side and the union side.

Magistrate Dennis J. Campagna ruled that these employees should not get additional sick leave accumulation or additional holiday pay the union was requesting.

However, he recommended that longevity pay — which rewards employees for lengthy service — be replaced with an education/training incentive, which basically doubles the required hours of training for Corrections employees. And the new stipend — which is retroactive back to Oct. 1, 2009 plus the next two years — will cost the same as longevity pay to provide, about $88,000 over the three-year contract, said County Budget Manager Amy Lovoy, who recommended against what commissioners approved.

“We recommended freezing longevity for all employees, and this is the same thing,” Lovoy said.  “I think these are so similar because these officers already receive pay for training. On top of that, they will be getting more educational pay that looks exactly like longevity.”

Road Prison employees already get up to $120 per month for state-mandated training, said Alan Miller, senior vice president of Northwest Florida PBA.

The additional educational stipend gives an employee earning 100 hours of continuing education within a five-year period a 2 percent pay increase. The PBA includes 65 members.

“I know it’s a similar cost, but it’s not like longevity; it’s additional pay for training,” said Commissioner Wilson Robertson, who intially wanted to consider giving all 1,131 county employees the additional amount.  Commissioner Marie Young said she would like to give all county employees more money, “but the money is just not there.” Commissioner Kevin White agreed with Young.

However, after Chairman Grover C. Robinson IV said he would like to see commissioners come to a unanimous decision, Young and White supported giving the union its request.