Minutes of the Personnel Board
Thurs., Dec 11, 2008
8:00 am
Members Present: Beth Ries, Kathy Nicholson and Elliot Curtis
Also present: Asst. Town Administrator Anita Scheipers
1. The Board discussed the issue of benefits accruals to part-timers working in multiple departments. Anita Scheipers explained the issues as follows:
ÿ The potential exists for an employee to work in two or more departments~with each position being a part-time~position of less than 20 hours per week, but the total number of employment hours~can exceed 20 hours, thus making the person eligible for health insurance and other benefits.
ÿ Concern exists about the lack of awareness departments may have regarding how their employment of such an individual~can have on the Town’s obligations,~~ and costs. No~formal process exists to ensure hiring decisions are made with full awareness of these impacts.
ÿ Significant payroll and benefits administration issues arise when we have an employee working for 2 or more departments at different rates of pay; especially when one of the departments is the Schools. In order to properly account for accruals of benefits other than health insurance, a blended rate is required to properly account for these benefits. This would lead to major issues with departments funding these blended rates.
ÿ Some employees currently work for 2 or more departments with fluctuating hours that do not always exceed 20 hrs per week.~ How do we determine they "regularly work 20 or more hours per week" to become benefits eligible?
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After extended discussion about the variety of instances in which the Town has relied on employment of part-time employees, Kathy Nicholson suggested we draft a policy as follows with effective date to be determined:
4.2 Employees working in Multiple Departments
a. Employees shall only be allowed to work in more than one department in different positions with different rates of pay within the Town and School systems if the total hours per week are less than 20 hours.
b. Employees shall not be allowed to work in more than one department in different positions with different rates of pay within the Town and School systems if the total number of hours per week exceed 20 UNLESS, in very limited circumstances, it is approved in advance by the Town Administrator, and if the following conditions are met:
a. The employee serves in the same job capacity in each department
b. The same rate of pay is paid for each position
c. The average number of hours per week consistently exceeds 20.
Anita Scheipers will review this draft policy with the Town Administrator and report back to the Board. She will also run this by other communities to see how they handle this issue.
2. The Board asked Anita Scheipers for an update on the following items:
a) Has the Moderator taken any action on appointing Graham Walker to the Personnel Board, who is not a citizen of the U.S. Mr. Walker is Australian and is in the process of applying for U.S. citizenship. Anita stated she would check with the Moderator to determine the status and let the Board know via email.
b) Has the Board of Assessors submitted a revised job description for the recently re-graded Administrator to the Board of Assessors position? Anita indicated that they had not. She will remind them of this task.
The next meeting will be in early January to continue discussion on this issue. Date TBD.
Meeting adjourned at 9:25 am.
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