When Will CAPE Members Receive Their Bonus Pay?

CAPE members in a variety of job classes will be receiving bonus pay as a result of the recently ratified salary contracts. Securing the bonuses was a tremendous victory, and CAPE members are justifiably asking when they should expect the bump in their paychecks.

At their meeting on October 15, 2019 the County Board of Supervisors approved the successor M.O.U.s for CAPE-represented employees, including the Supervising Engineers, Engineers, Supervising Engineering Technicians, Engineering Technicians, Supervisory Appraisers and Appraisers Units. Many members in these units are eligible to receive the new bonus pay.

After the Supervisors ratified the contracts, the next step is for the Auditor/Controller's Office to assign payroll codes to each of these new bonuses. This work is done entirely inside the Auditor/Controller's Office, and unfortunately, neither CAPE, the Departments or the CEO have control over when the work will be completed by the Auditor/Controller' staff. We have been requesting, constantly, that the Board of Supervisors and their staff expedite the work. In the meantime your Department will be preparing proposed procedures and forms to have eligible members file to receive the bonuses.

Once the payroll codes are assigned to each of the new Bonuses, CAPE will review the proposed procedure for CAPE members to claim qualification for the new bonuses.

Once CAPE members have filed their claims of qualification, and the departments have verified the qualifications, the County, the bonus pay -- and the retroactive payments -- will be included in the individual member's paychecks. Each of the new bonuses have effective dates stated in the respective M.O.U's.

Applying bonus pay to paychecks is more complicated than the usual procedure of applying pay increases negotiated by CAPE's bargaining teams. Therefore, it will take more time to complete the bonus pay process.

For more information about the bonus pay provisions, which members are eligible, and when the effective dates apply for each unit, please call the CAPE office at (626) 243-0340.