City Council at its most recent meeting approved a five-year contract with the police union, retroactive to the beginning of this year.

The contract calls for a raise of 3.6 percent the first year and 2 percent per year thereafter.

The contract brings the police union out of a three-year wage freeze imposed at the start of 2014 by the city’s Act 47 distressed-municipality recovery plan.

The freeze would have begun a year earlier, when the city entered Act 47 at the beginning of 2013, but then-current union contracts had another year to run.

The city expects to exit the distress program in keeping with the norms of the Act 47 law at the end of this year.

The contract calls for health insurance premiums to remain the same, but for deductibles to increase by $200 for individuals and $400 for couples or families, according to Personnel Director Omar Strohm.

The contract calls for longevity pay to continue for eligible employees.

The longevity pay will be folded into the annual contractual increases, according to a fact sheet provided by Strohm.

Longevity payments are annual bonuses based on length of tenure.

Over its duration, the contract incrementally reduces the maximum amount of compensatory time off that an employee can turn into cash at retirement from 480 hours to 80 hours.

The contract calls for the city to pay employees who opt out of health insurance coverage 20 percent of the savings realized by the city.

Such opt-out can occur when an employee’s spouse has better coverage through a different line of work.

The contract also calls for promotions to be made in accordance with the revised Third Class City Code, even though the city is now under home rule.

The code calls for council to fix by ordinance “the number, grades and compensation” (of officers) … in accordance with … civil service provisions.”

The Mirror tried unsuccessfully to obtain a comment from a union spokesperson.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.