Agenda Index City of Vancouver

CITY OF VANCOUVER

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

STANDING COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON

CITY SERVICES AND BUDGETS

MAY 25, 1998

A Regular Meeting of the Council of the City of Vancouver was held on Monday, May 25, 1998 at 10:50 a.m. , in Council Chambers, Third Floor, City Hall, following the Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets meeting, to consider the recommendations of the Committee. 

PRESENT:
 
Mayor Philip Owen
Councillor Don Bellamy
Councillor Nancy A. Chiavario
Councillor Jennifer Clarke
Councillor Alan Herbert
Councillor Lynne Kennedy
Councillor Daniel Lee
Councillor Don Lee
Councillor Gordon Price
Councillor George Puil
Councillor Sam Sullivan
 
CITY MANAGER'S
OFFICE:

Ken Dobell, City Manager

 
CLERK TO THE
COUNCIL:

Tarja Tuominen

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

MOVED by Cllr. Puil,

SECONDED by Cllr. Bellamy,

THAT this Council resolve itself into Committee of the Whole, Mayor Owen in the chair.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Report of Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

May 25, 1998

Council considered the recommendations of the Committee, as contained in the following clause of the attached report:

Cl.1: Compressed Work Week

Clause 1

MOVED by Cllr. Puil,

THAT the recommendations of the Committee, as contained in Clause 1 of this report, be approved.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

RISE FROM COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

MOVED by Cllr. Clarke,

THAT the Committee of the Whole rise and report.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

ADOPT REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

MOVED by Cllr. Bellamy,

SECONDED by Cllr. Clarke,

THAT the report of the Committee of the Whole be adopted.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

The Council adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

* * * * *

REPORT TO COUNCIL

STANDING COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

ON CITY SERVICES AND BUDGETS

MAY 25, 1998

A Special Meeting of the Standing Committee of Council on City Services and Budgets was held on Monday, May 25, 1998 at 9:00 a.m. in Council Chambers, Third Floor, City Hall. 

PRESENT:

Councillor George Puil, Chair 

Mayor Philip Owen
Councillor Don Bellamy
Councillor Nancy A. Chiavario
Councillor Jennifer Clarke
Councillor Alan Herbert
Councillor Lynne Kennedy
Councillor Daniel Lee
Councillor Don Lee
Councillor Gordon Price
Councillor Sam Sullivan
 
CITY MANAGER'S
OFFICE:

Ken Dobell, City Manager

 
CLERK TO THE
COMMITTEE:

Tarja Tuominen

RECOMMENDATION

1. Compressed Work Week File: 1302

On May 14, 1998, the Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets heard from 16 of 30 registered speakers on the issue of the Compressed Work Week. Due to time constraints, the Committee deferred hearing the remainder of the speakers to a special City Services and Budgets meeting to be held May 25, 1998.

cont'd

Clause No. 1 (Cont'd)

Accordingly, the Administrative Report, dated April 23, 1998 (on file) in which the City Manager, in consultation with the Corporate Management Team, recommended staff, and CUPE Local 15 and IBEW Local 213, be given notice the Compressed Work Week will end September 1, 1998 was resubmitted.

Also before the Committee was a memorandum dated May 21, 1998 from the Director of Human Resources (on file) providing the following additional background on the compressed work week: the number of 4-day, 9-day fortnight, 5 day week individuals in the City, Police, Parks, and Library; and a listing of other organizations who have, or it has been suggested, might have a compressed work week.

The Chair then called for the remainder of the speakers and the following appeared in support of retaining the compressed work week:

·Donna Taylor

·Carolina Moore

·Paul Griffin

·Alice Yee, on behalf of Property Negotiators

·Anne Bancroft-Jones, on behalf of Bruce Maitland

·Ken Davidson, President, CUPE 1004, in place of Walter Loos

·Jim Lloyd (brief filed)

·Ralph Segal, Application Processing Group

·Derek Creighton

·Adrienne Montani, Child & Youth Advocate (brief previously circulated)

·Michael Gordon

·Tom Phipps

·Peter Stary (brief filed)

·Branca Verde (brief filed)

·Mario Lee

The speakers’ points are summarized as follows:

·

a five day week will be inefficient to serve summonses; the objective is to be out more hours rather than less;

·it has never been a problem in By-law Fines Department to schedule internal meetings; all clerical staff have been cross-trained to serve the public;

·children are the city’s future; with the compressed work week, have the ability to take daughter to activities and attend medical appointments;

cont'd

Clause No. 1 (Cont'd)

·sick time will increase; employees will have added travel, commuting and daycare costs, and will have to spend more time in rush hour;

·four days before final agreement to be signed with Parking Enforcement to expand the operations to a nine-day fortnight, the report on the compressed work week was released; now everything is on hold;

·clients appreciate being able to come before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.; in the Real Estate Division, employees back each other up, check voice mail frequently and retrieve it at home;

·the compressed work week is an important recruitment feature; the City does not offer comparable salaries to the private sector;

·discussion of the compressed work week should be at the bargaining table;

· elimination of the compressed work week will not be good for labour relations and a healthy work force;

·in business courses at SFU and BCIT, compressed work hours have been identified as the trend in organizations; Statistics Canada report only 39% of full time work force works the five day week;

·the Development and Building Review process does try to plug any gaps in the compressed work week by assigning all processing staff to a core work week of Monday to Thursday; assigning staff experts to deal with Friday inquiries or arranging for contact at home; implementing a new tracking and back-up system;

·the compressed work week pays for concessions - difficult to recruit paralegal and legal secretarial positions;

·there has been no consultation on elimination of compressed work week; it is an unilateral change in the contract;

·need to evaluate what the impact will be on children; there is growing agreement that family-friendly workplace policies and practices are good for families with children, good for business and good for our communities;

·any consideration of the removal of the compressed work week needs to examine the impacts on children, including family health and well-being, economic pressures, health and environmental effects;

·compressed work week has allowed employees to contribute in volunteer organizations to help make this a great city;

·ask employees to join management to look at how to improve and address concerns;

·as the level of complexity of issues escalate, staff need a three day break to absorb and to recover; a week day off allows staff to complete courses;

·on non-core days, staff have time to produce reports; if in meetings all day, unable to produce any work;

cont'd

Clause No. 1 (Cont'd)

·direct the City Manager and the Corporate Management Team to: identify specific areas in which operational difficulties exist; work with staff to address any difficulties by means of a consultative, creative and transparent process; and base solutions on established corporate values;

·staff have collected close to 500 signatures from customers stating the compressed work week is not an issue;

·the Public Involvement Review carried out in recent months has not indicted issues related to the compressed work week;

·staff have identified over 125 local work places (government departments and private companies) which have some form of compressed work week, including 12 municipalities.

The Committee thanked the speakers for their comments. Committee members noted they had received a great deal of information to review and had several questions to which they wanted answers before they were able to make a decision.

The following motion by the Mayor was put and carried. The Committee, therefore,

RECOMMENDED

A.THAT discussion and decision on the Compressed Work Week be deferred to a future Council meeting.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

The following motion by Cllr. Clarke was put and carried. The Committee, therefore,

RECOMMENDED

B.THAT, to assist in the deliberations:

a)the Director of Human Resources report back on how many employees on the Compressed Work Week have children under 7 years of age.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

cont'd

Clause No. 1 (Cont'd)

The following motion by Cllr. Kennedy was put and carried. The Committee, therefore,

RECOMMENDED

B. b)staff provide a glossary of terms defining the different compressed and flexible work week options and how they are used in other municipalities.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

The following motion by Cllr. Sullivan was put and carried. The Committee, therefore,

RECOMMENDED

B. c)staff report back on what flexibility options are available to the City.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

The meeting adjourned at 10:50 a.m.

* * * * *

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