BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace agreed Thursday to change the holiday pay policy and end extra pay for emergency workers when offices are closed for inclement weather.
The Quorum Court's Personnel Committee voted unanimously to recommend the changes in the personnel policy.
Barb Ludwig, human resources manager, told the committee the changes will mostly affect the Sheriff's Office and Jail, Central Communications and the Juvenile Detention Center.
"These are emergency personnel who are expected to be there anyway," Ludwig said. Ludwig said the county will save about $127,000 through the rest of the year. The changes were forwarded to the Committee of the Whole.
Ludwig said under the new policy, public safety employees who work holidays will be paid their normal pay plus eight hours if they work the holiday.
Employees in those departments who work 40 hours during a week including a holiday, but not on the holiday because of their schedule, will have eight hours added to their comp time bank.
Employees will not be allowed to use comp time or vacation time to receive more than their normal pay.
The inclement weather policy also reduced the pay rate for employees who work when offices are closed, Ludwig said. The past practice was if an employee worked during the time the county is closed they received double time for hours worked.
Under the new policy, emergency services employees are expected to report for work as scheduled, without additional compensation when other offices are closed. Other employees are paid for the hours offices are closed. Employees who are called in to work during inclement weather will be paid 1½ times their normal rate.
Ludwig said an example of this happened in February when offices were closed but some employees of the County Clerk's office were called in to keep the office open during early voting.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4, said past practices had far exceeded what is offered elsewhere.
"I can promise you Walmart does not pay like that," Allen said. "They've been getting a very sweet deal."
Rey Hernandez, justice of the peace for District 2, agreed with Allen and said the county needs to look for savings in all areas. The justices of the peace have been looking for ways to cut budgets to pay for rural ambulance service.
"In light of the need to tighten our belts, when it comes to these kind of hours, I think this is a good thing," Hernandez said.
NW News on 05/02/2014