6. Staff Report-Personnel Policy UpdatesSCANDIA
Staff Repovt
Date of Meeting: November 10, 2015
To: City Council
From: Kristina Handt, Administrator
Re: Personnel Policy Updates
Background:
The Personnel Policy was adopted in 2010 and has been updated a handful of times since then. In
December 2014 the maintenance workers decided to join a union. Through union negotiations, some of
the provisions in the personnel policy were changed for the represented employees, specific areas for
discussion at this meeting being holidays, funeral leave and paid time off (PTO).
Issue:
Should the Council amend the personnel policy to incorporate some changes and offer consistency with
certain provisions of the union contract?
Proposal Details:
I am proposing to update three sections of the personnel policy:
Section 4.a)4) Holidays
An additional holiday (Christmas Eve) is provided in the union contract. I would suggest adding this as
an official holiday for non -union employees too. It can be confusing for the public and inefficient to have
one department of the city open on a holiday and another not. In the past, the Council has at times
allowed city offices to close entirely or close early on Christmas Eve Day. I have also approved time off
for most staff as the office is not particularly business on this holiday.
Section 4.a)5) Bereavement/Funeral Leave
For consistency I would proposed amending this section to be the same as the language in the union
contract. It does provide leave foe additional extended family members and increase leave to four days in
the case of the death of an immediate family member.
Current Policy Language:
(a) Funeral leave may be granted to full time City employees, or to part time employees
scheduled to work 30 hours or more per week. To be eligible for funeral leave an
employee must furnish adequate proof that a death has occurred with the employee's
immediate family.
(b) The term "immediate family" shall include spouse, parents, step-parents, child, step-
child, grandchild, step -grandchild, siblings and step -siblings of the employee, or
grandparents of the employee or spouse, mother-in-law or father-in-law. Relatives of
the employee other than those above listed shall not be considered members of the
immediate family for the purposes of this policy.
(c) Paid funeral leave may be granted for one, two or three work days where the supervisor
concludes such leave is warranted provided that no more than three days (24 hours) of
paid funeral leave per calendar year shall be allowed.
Proposed New Language:
Funeral leave shall be granted to full-time Employees as follows:
(a) Four (4) days in each case of the death of:
■ Employee's parents or stepparents;
■ Employee's spouse, or person regarded as such;
■ Employee's children, stepchildren or foster children;
(b) Two (2) day in each case of the death of:
■ Employee's siblings or stepsiblings;
■ Employee's grandparents or stepgrandparents;
■ Employee's grandchildren or stepgrandchildren;
■ Parents or stepparents of the Employee's spouse or person regarded as such;
■ Siblings or stepsiblings of the Employee's spouse or person regarded as such;
(c) One (1) day in each case of the death of:
■ Employee's aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew, including step relations;
■ Grandparents or stepgrandparents of the Employee's spouse or person regarded as such;
■ Grandchildren or stepgrandchildren of the Employee's spouse or person regarded as such.
(d) Funeral Leave will be at the Employee's regular rate of pay and shall not be counted against the
Employee's PTO. Upon approval of the supervisor, the Employee may choose to use PTO to extend the
funeral leave. The City Administrator may determine the length of leave for any case not meeting the
above guidelines.
Section 4.a)1)(a) PTO Accrual Chart
The chart currently in the personnel policy was developed when pay was bi monthly. Since then we have
changed to an every other week pay period. As a result the calculations per paycheck are incorrect. Staff
is proposing to keep the same annual PTO amounts but to remove the per paycheck calculations that are
incorrect.
Existing Chart:
Completed Years of
Employment
PTO Hours
Accrued per Pay
Period
PTO Hours
Accrued per Year
PTO Days (8 hr.)
Accrued per Year
0-1
5.5
132
16.5
2-4
7
168
21
5-9
8
192
24
10 — 14
9
216
27
15+
10
240
30
New Chart:
Completed Years
of Employment
0-1
2-4
5-9
10 — 14
15+
PTO hours
accrued per year
132
168
192
216
240
PTO days (8 hr.)
accrued per year
16.5
21
24
27
30
Fiscal Impact:
No increase in payroll costs are anticipated with these changes. It is highly unlikely a non -union
employee would be required to work on Christmas Eve resulting in holiday pay.
Options:
1) Recommend staff make updates to Personnel Policy and place on next consent agenda
2) Recommend staff make some but not all updates to Personnel Policy and place on next consent
agenda
3) Recommend staff make different updates to Personnel Policy and place on next consent agenda
4) Do not make any updates to the Personnel Policy.
Recommendation:
Option 1