Stonington — The town recently signed contracts with its two largest employee unions.

The unions are those representing police officers and highway department workers. Having the contracts in place allows town and school officials to include accurate salary figures in their proposed 2020-21 budgets.

The police contract runs from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022, and calls for 2.6 percent raises in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and a 2.7 percent hike in 2021-22. That means officers, sergeants and lieutenants will be paid the raise money retroactively. The contract also calls for a starting patrolman to earn $60,991 a year.

One change in the contract language is designed to give officers with less seniority more of an opportunity to use their vacation time. The contract does not provide additional vacation days for officers.

The highway department contract, which runs from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022, calls for 2.6 percent raises in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and a 2.7 percent hike in 2021-22. It, too, is retroactive.

Under terms of the contract, employees can accumulate up to 165 days of unused sick days and are paid for 80 of those days upon retirement or death. Sixty of the days can be used to calculate pension benefits. Employees who work on one of 12 holidays are paid 2½ times their hourly rate.