Minnesota public defenders reached a tentative contract agreement late Friday night, union officials said Saturday, averting a walkout that threatened to bring much of the state court system to a standstill.
The deal came during the first day of mediation following last week's strike authorization vote. The tentative agreement between employees of the Minnesota Board of Public Defense and the board's leadership includes a 3.5% retroactive pay increase from July 1 when the previous contract expired, and a 3% bump after July 1 of this year.
Employees have raised concerns about staffing shortages and high caseloads, conditions they said hurt their clients, who are mostly indigent and people of color.
"This is just putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound," said Gus Froemke, communications director for Teamsters Local 320, the union that represents public defenders. "The public defenders system is still chronically underfunded and understaffed, and the Legislature must act."
Board leadership agreed. "Even with these salary increases, the board continues to share the belief that public defenders statewide are underpaid, and that we are understaffed," it said in a statement.
The board will hire additional support staff over the comings months to assist attorneys, it said.
Under the tentative agreement, employees not at the top of the pay scale would advance one step each year. And part-time public defenders, who represent about a third of the 450 public defense attorneys in the state's system, would receive money to cover their overhead costs, Froemke said.
But because of the staff shortages and high caseloads, the part timers, whose contracts stipulate they work 1,350 hours a year, often work 500 to 2,000 extra hours without pay, he said. The agreement does not include funding to cover those hours.
