Compressed Work Week

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
DATE: April 23, 1998 CC File: 1302

TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets
FROM: City Manager, in consultation with the Corporate Management Team.
SUBJECT: Compressed Work Week
RECOMMENDATION
A.That staff, and CUPE Local 15 and IBEW Local 213 (Inspectors and Technicians) be given notice that the Compressed Work Week (specifically the Four Day Week and Nine Day Fortnight) will end September 1, 1998.
B.That the Police, Library and Park Boards be advised of Council’s action.
CITY MANAGER’S COMMENTS
There is no question that the four day week is a major benefit to employees. However, it has significant implications for the service level that the City can provide the public. The business community that deals with the City for the most part works five days a week. The inability to deal with key staff and conduct business five days per week has been identified as a significant issue. Even internally, meetings involving a number of staff can only be scheduled effectively three days per week. Internal services suffer the same ‘customer service’ problems.
Responsiveness and continuity are key components of City service. With the increasing pressure on City budgets, options to enhance services are limited. The increased speed of business generally makes the limitation of the four day week unacceptable.
The City Manager advises that the Corporate Management Team has discussed the benefits and problems associated with the four day week extensively and unanimously supports this recommendation.
The City Manager RECOMMENDS approval of A and B.
COUNCIL POLICY
Two aspects of Council policy and practice are relevant to this issue. Through the Better City Government program, Council has placed a high value on service to the public. At the same time, Council has given significant weight to the interests and concerns of City employees.
The following Council approved objectives are relevant:
·To provide quality service equitably
·To create a challenging, safe, healthy, and rewarding workplace
·To be fiscally responsible
·To create good government through:- Public participation- Internal improvement- Constructive external relations
PURPOSE
This report responds to Council’s request to report on the compressed work week and seeks Council's approval to give notice to terminate the compressed work week.
BACKGROUND
In 1976, a compressed work week was established initially in City Hall on an experimental basis. At the time, it was intended to provide some reduction in traffic travelling to and from City Hall. It was considered that if staff travelled on four days of the week instead of five and that travel occurred outside the standard hours of nine to five, traffic congestion would be reduced. City Hall employees would travel to work earlier and leave later. It was intended to motivate other employers in the City core to implement forms of modified working hours to reduce traffic volume. The idea never took hold and few other employers followed the City’s lead.
When the four day week was first implemented, Council retained the right to terminate the compressed work week by providing thirty days notice to staff and the unions representingthose staff.
When the compressed work week was established at City Hall, it was established on a four day week basis. It was later modified in Parks, Library and the Health Department to a nine day fortnight as the operational requirements in those areas could not be met by the four day week. At the time of the implementation, there were some administrative rules that were considered necessary to minimize disruption to customer service. These included the expectation that staff on the compressed work week would ensure that doctor’s appointments were established on their day off; that their compressed day off would be adjusted or even revert to five days to accommodate training; that cross-training of colleagues would be essential to ensure customer service would continue; and that individuals would not be eligible for acting pay when they were covering for someone on their compressed day off.
The impact of the compressed work week has been formally reviewed twice -- in 1977, one year following the implementation, and again in 1984. In 1982, Council considered cancelling the provision. At that time, the City Manager recommended termination of the 4 day week and the 9 day fortnight. Council voted to retain the Compressed Work Week subject to certain conditions, including employees reverting to a five-day schedule temporarily to meet special conditions; a clear understanding that the free day not necessarily fall on a Monday or Friday; acceptance by employees that seniority is not a factor in developing rotational schedules; employees revert to a five day schedule for training when appropriate and employees scheduling medical appointments on their compressed day off.
At this time, there are approximately 1100 City employees on a compressed four day week and approximately 150 working a nine-day fortnight. Most employees of the City do not have access to the compressed work week. Many (police, fire, recreation, and others) work schedules specifically tailored to their work. CUPE 1004 staff (outside workers) work a five day, forty hour week.
DISCUSSION
From the beginning, there have been benefits and problems associated with the compressed work week. These were identified in the two formal studies. The benefits included:
·400·Assisting in recruitment and staff retention.·400
·400·A positive impact on employee morale and the contribution the compressed work week made in assisting employees to balance their work and family lives.·400
·400·Initial reduction in absenteeism.·400
·400·Expansion of the hours City Hall is open to the public from 40 to 45. ·400
·400·Longer time blocks for project work and fewer start up and shut down times at the beginning and end of the day.·400
From the beginning, there have also been concerns with respect to the compressed work week. These include:
·400·Delays in providing customer service, both internal and external, in situations where one person is accountable for an issue or a project and others are unable to respond.·400
·400·Difficulties in communicating with staff within and between departments.·400
·400·Meetings invariably have to be scheduled on three of the five working days in a week in order to ensure everyone is able to attend. ·400
·400·Unanticipated costs for employee leaves such as sick leave, compassionate leave, union leave and scores of others. Most leave entitlements were adjusted to hours from days at the time of the implementation of the compressed work week, but when an individual is granted three days for compassionate leave, they are absent for 3/4 of their working week instead of 3/5. When an individual is absent for a day on sick leave, they are absent for 8.33 hours, instead of seven.·400
·400·Criticism from citizens and businesses that Council has granted its employees a compressed work week, whereas most people and businesses work a five day week and expect their government counterparts to do so also.·400
The reviews of the four day week conducted by Thorne Riddell Associates Ltd. in 1977 and again in 1984 operating as Thorne Stevenson & Kellogg identified the benefits noted above but also the problems that continue to plague the four day week. The reports also noted that it worked better in some departments and work units than in others and noted, in fact, that it likely could not continue to work in some areas.
The 1984 report suggests that higher morale and motivation can lead to real improvementsin productivity and performance but suggests that the benefit of the compressed work week to employee commitment to the City had eroded over time. Reduced absenteeism was noted but questioned whether punctuality and tardiness were issues that needed to be addressed.
In 1998, the compressed work week continues to be a factor in recruiting. However, the benefit of improved morale has been eroded over time. The issue of providing the appropriate levels of service to the public and responding in a timely fashion to their issues and requests, along with internal communication, continues to be an underlying complaint of the four day week. Effectively, business can only be conducted on three days of the week.
The Corporate Management Team has considered the balance between the advantages to employees from the compressed work week and its implications for effective operations and customer service. The management team also considered the possibility of maintaining the compressed work week in some operations which can accommodate it more readily, but concluded that the equity and internal recruitment issues which would arise would more than offset the benefit of a limited compressed work week.
While acknowledging the significant benefits of the compressed work week to employees, the Corporate Management Team supports the recommendation that Council approve termination of the present arrangements and reverting to a five day week.
There may be instances where an individual will prefer to work four seven hour days (i.e. 4/5 time) for 4/5 pay and where that can work operationally, departments would be encouraged to accommodate that Schedule. There are also situations where work schedules based on a form of compressed work week have been designed specifically to meet an operational need, generally a twenty-four hour/seven day operation, where it may be advantageous to continue the existing schedule.
An issue arising from the elimination of the compressed work week will be the necessity to review the hours City Hall is open to the public. This will require discussions with CUPE Local 15, and will be reported back to Council.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
There should be a limited reduction in costs for both temporary help and overtime. In addition, an increase in productivity and customer service can be anticipated in the longer term, although there could be short-term disruption.
PERSONNEL IMPLICATIONS
The elimination of the compressed work week will cause considerable disruption in the lives of some employees. Many have worked a four day week since they were hired and the compressed work week may have been the factor that drew them to work for the City in the first place. Some employees will leave.
The four day week/nine-day fortnight has been a recruiting advantage and has retained some staff who might not otherwise have remained with the City. That recruiting advantage will be lost.
Council can anticipate that for a period there will be an increase in the level of dissatisfaction among employees, morale will suffer and the compressed work week will likely be an issue at the next round of bargaining with CUPE Local 15. Some programs depending on employee goodwill may suffer.
A copy of this report has been provided to the unions involved.
SUMMARY
The advantages that caused the Council of the day to approve the compressed work week are outweighed by the significant disadvantages. It is considered advisable to terminate the compressed work week with adequate notice to staff to enable them to make the necessary modifications in their lives to accommodate the requirement to report to work on five days.
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