Fremont workers Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

By Sarah A. Wise
NL Staff Writer
The Fremont Town Board considered making several changes to their personnel policy at a recent meeting, but decided to hold off on the changes for the moment.
After hearing complaints a few months ago from town workers about the town’s policy on overtime and compensatory time, a committee was formed to examine the policy. The committee, which consisted of town workers and town officials, discussed what they felt needed to be changed in the policy, and submitted an informal list of requests to the town board.
The committee recommended four changes to the policy.
The first change involved pay when workers are called in for unplanned events. Currently, if a town employee is called into work for an unplanned event after they are off the clock, they are only paid for the amount of time they work. Town Manager Kerry McDuffie explained that this means if someone is called out of bed at three in the morning and only clocks in for 30 minutes, he or she will only get paid for the 30 minutes.
The committee suggests that whenever a worker is called in unexpectedly for an unplanned event, he or she would have a minimum of two hours credited to their workweek.
Second, the committee sought to resolve the issue of lost vacation time. They proposed that if any employee’s vacation time exceeds the 240 hour limit at the end of the fiscal year, that extra vacation time would be transferred to sick leave.
According to current policy, any built-up vacation time would be lost at the end of the year if not used. Mr. McDuffie said that many employees were frustrated by this limitation because their work is so necessary to the operation of the town that most don’t take all of their vacation time.
The third issue dealt with overtime for planned activities outside of normal work hours. The committee suggested that workers who come in at an unusual time for a planned event, such as scheduled replacement of a fire hydrant, would then take off an equivalent amount of time at some point during the same week.
On the other hand, when employees are called in for an unplanned event, such as a fire hydrant that is struck by a car and broken off, they would receive compensatory time. The committee also refrained from setting a specific time frame for using the comp time, but suggested that the employee take it during the next 30 days.
Alderman W.T. Smith said he felt that employees should be paid for working overtime, rather than given comp time.
Alderman Leroy Ruffin agreed, noting that if the town used compensatory time, and an employee quit with compensatory time built up, the town would have to find the money to pay them for the time.
“I think it’s better to go ahead and try to find the money when they work instead of waiting,” he said.
Alderman Leon Mooring argued for the changes.
“The guys who came up with this are the workers, and they’re happy with this,” he said.
“I think we should try it if they are happy with it,” added Alderman Billy Harvey.
Mr. McDuffie said that there were two issues for the aldermen to keep in mind – the policy can be changed whenever necessary, and that the document is a policy, not an ordinance, which means it is a guideline rather than a legally binding document.
Alderman Ruffin said he would give approval to go ahead and try out the changes, but that he can already foresee problems up the road.
“If we have a hurricane, that’s going to mean a lot of comp time,” he said.
“Hurricanes we can deal with, because we can get help from FEMA or something like that,” said Aldermen Smith. “But if we get a tornado or a windstorm that causes a lot of damage, it’s hard to get help for that.”
The board requested that the personnel committee submit a formal amendment to the board for further consideration.
Mr. McDuffie also pointed out two issues that he felt should be considered when looking at the personnel policy as well.
First of all, he recommended creating some kind of on-call system for town workers.
He explained that, the way the town operates now, there is no worker on-call after hours and on weekends. This means that whenever an urgent matter comes up that needs to be fixed, such as an electrical issue or broken fire hydrant, the town must call all the workers until they get up with someone.
“So far, this hasn’t been a problem; we always get someone to come in,” he said.
But there is the possibility that one day, no one will answer. Furthermore, no one would be held accountable come Monday morning either, because no one is on call.
“We may want to think about putting someone on call at night and on the weekends, so that someone can be held accountable for anything that might come up,” he said.
The aldermen agreed that someone needed to be on call, but had some reservations.
“We need to think about how many people we have that can do everything,” said Alderman Ruffin. “There are some people who do electricity, some who do other things. You aren’t going to be able to get too many people that can do everything.”
Mr. McDuffie also suggested making the positions of Police Chief and Public Works Director to salaried positions.
“You need to have someone in each area that is in a supervisory role, and that is their position,” he said.
However, several aldermen disagreed with the change.
“They’ll lose money,” said Alderman Mooring.
Alderman Billy Harvey said he just hesitated to make any decision at the meeting.
“We need to talk about this a little more and see what’s the pluses and minuses for the town,” he said.
Mr. McDuffie agreed, saying that he would not recommend the board taking any action on the requests immediately, but rather to think about the proposed ideas.

Issue of 5 July 2007

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Proposed changes for Fremont worker policies

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