York County and a union representing nearly 400 employees at its nursing home have struck a labor agreement after more than two years of negotiations.

The four-year collective bargaining agreement covers 390 employees of Pleasant Acres Nursing and Rehabilitation Center from Jan. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2014, with the old contract having expired the last day of 2010. Negotiations started in early 2010, said Kristy Bixler, the county's director of human resources.

Negotiation road blocks were "the usual, wages and benefits," with both parties trying to get the best deal possible in a down economy, she said.

The contract calls for no pay increases for 2011 and 2.75 percent increases each year for 2012, 2013, and 2014, she said, with workers being paid retroactively for this year's salary increase.

The new agreement also provides a second, less-expensive health insurance plan available to existing employees who choose it and mandatory for all new hires, Bixler said.

Prescription co-pays increased, as did employees' contributions to the cost of their benefits, she said.

The contract includes language changes that will allow the county to investigate possible cost-saving reductions in the retirement plans for future hirees, she said.

The nursing home contract, which commissioners approved Wednesday, is the second long-expired agreement struck this year.

In June, commissioners OK'd a new union contract with 36 employees of the York County Youth Development Center. That contract had also expired Dec. 31, 2010.

Under that agreement, pay increases were given retroactively, with 2 percent for 2011, 2.25 percent in 2012, 2.5 percent in 2013, and 2.75 percent in 2014.

- Reach Christina Kauffman at ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com.