As labor negotiations limp on, Mayor Nutter yesterday froze salary increases for union workers and non-represented civil service employees.

The move - which the city said could save an estimated $80 million over five years - comes a week after contracts expired for the city's four municipal unions. It would affect two types of raises automatically awarded city workers for time served.

"If you got it, you got it and if you didn't you didn't," said Managing Director Camille Barnett, who insisted that the administration was not making a negotiating play, but rather trying to achieve much-needed savings.

The city has never taken such a step, but officials say that a state Supreme Court ruling supports the move.

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